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BULLETIN 


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My 
SSGIENTITG= ASSOCIATION 
; Be —~ oF —— 
y Siw es PEORTA ILLINOIS. 
: PUBLISHED By eae ASSOCIATION. 
18 i937 
[1S 7. UNIVERSITY OF 1 LENDS 
cea ge CONTENTS: : 
E ; Age. 
hareae Petal AND OBJECTS OF THE Pionia SCIENTIFIC AssocrA TION, 3 
“Recorpina. SECRETARY’ Ss REPORT FOR THE X#Ar ENDING May 1.1886, © 12 
GroLogy (On Peoria. Country, 20). Ber ce: ; . 14 
_PALRoNTOLOGy or PEORIA County, UR ORS, Ge a eo gape 
FLORA OF Peoria, PS Ala ek as Ra Te. 8 AS Bab 27.98 
THE CLIMATE OF Prortra, = ‘ am oe a, ; : 34 
SKETCHES, OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND Bit: BULION OF VEGETATION, © 41 
CATALOGUE OF COLEOPTERA, ; : Ae as 
Tue Laws or NatuRs As APPLIED To roe Ave anis or LIFE ay 64 
Is MAN A FINALITY OF ORGANIC Evouy BION el, HS ro ae 
| THe LAKH ASA Microcosm, : Res, 4 2 as ee et 83 
TNGRATION a aGue AND PLANTS, oe re re ce Dieppe Sp aa ot 


hs Serene eRe eR ie ig a cet Dg a tel Agile nos 


Return this book on or before the 
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SCIENTIFIC*AS80G1 ATION, 


APR RB Et ® ND A PY PRP me pee 


ote Le SG 
FEB 18 1937 


UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


PRORT Amel UINOLS. 


eho lS ite )..BY THE ASSOCIATION. 





ll Sesie. 


Edward Hine & Co., Printers, Peoria. 








HISTORY, AIMS AND OBJECTS 


OF THE 


PEORIA SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 


BY DR. J. T. STEWART. 








DELIVERED BEFORE THE PEORIA SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, 
FRIDAY EVENING, SEpt. 4, 1885. 





Science may be defined as an assemblage of facts, truths 
proved, demonstrated and systematized, and is therefore in its 
essence irresistible, indestructible, eternal. Before it the dark 
clouds of ignorance vanish; the black and dreadful pall of 
superstition rolls away. Before it the fetters fall from the hu- 
man mind; the prison doors are opened, it breathes the pure air 
of heaven, it feels the warm sunshine, it sees the beauties, the 
glories of the universe, it comes into possession of the rich 
heritage which by right is its own. As the thermometer is a 
measure of the temperature of the air, so science is a measure 
of the civilization of a people. Just in proportion as science is 
developed and diffused is civilization advanced. 

In Egypt, Hast India and China science was in a high state of 
development four thousand years ago, and those people were in 
a correspondingly high state of civilization. Some of the sci- 
ences were fully as highly developed as they are now with us, 
and some of the arts were developed far beyond our present 
knowledge of them. 

As an example of the advanced state of those nations above 
named, two thousand years before Christ, the healing art was 
well established and systematized. Physicians were educated 
_by the government and paid by the government, both in mili- 
tary and civil practice, and were held in high esteem by the 


‘ foo gray a 
esa? aa 
a “ae ees? &, seat Bay 


4 Peoria Scientific Association. 


people. Many of our modern discoveries were known to 
them, as the circulation of the blood and anesthetics, which 
are thoughtto be —and justly so—wonderful modern discoyer- 
ies. They had fine surgical instruments, and understood their 
use as well as we do now. 

Medicine was systematized much as it is now, and some of 
our best remedies were used by them and for the same purposes 
we use them now. 

Egypt was overrun with barbarian fanatics, her great libraries 
burned, her institutions of learning, her sciences, medicine in- 
cluded, buried, and, with them, her civilization. For more than 
a thousand years she has been a land of darkness. With her 
sciences went out light, liberty, peace, prosperity and happiness. 

Some time before the Christian era the emperor of China 
issued an edict, which was executed to the letter, directing all 
scientific books in the realm, except those on astronomy, to be 
destroyed. It was also ordered that any physician who used a 
new remedy or anew method of practice should do so at his 
peril—that was, if the patient died he should suffer death. 
From that hour she began to retrograde, and continued to do 
so until a general lethargy prevailed over the whole of that vast 
country. Now our western civilization is beginning to stir her 
stagnant waters, and it may be hoped that, with the reintroduc- 
tion of science, after a long lapse of time, she may be again 
renovated. 

From some cause or causes with which I am not familiar a 
knowledge of the sciences faded from India, and with it all 
civilization that is worthy the name. 3 

Science never conflicts with truth; it never yields to or com- 
promises with error. What was truth a thousand years ago is 
truth to-day, and will be forever, though it may be forgotten 
by men. What was science a thousand years ago is science 
to-day, and will ever be, though the dust of ages may have hid- 
den it from view. There is truth without science, but there is’ 
no science without truth. All disputes among scientists are as 
to what is true, not as to the truth of science. The moment a 
proposition, a theory, or any thing, is demonstrated. to be a 
truth, all disputes cease. : 


Its Mistory, Aims and Objects. 5 


The great importance of this subject — of searching for truth, 
facts, elaborating and systemizing them and disseminating them 
among the people was felt ten years ago by a few ladies and 
gentlemen of this place. As a means of carrying out this idea 
an organization was formed and styled the Scientific Associa- 
tion of Peoria. The founders of it had no idea of making it 
a strictly and rigidly scientific association. They knew well 
that the scientists of this place, in the strict sense of the word, 
could be counted on the fingers of one hand and that perhaps 
they might be divided by five. But they knew there were 
many who had some knowledge of science and who wished to 
study some of its branches or departments, and others possess- 
ing some literary attainments, and that there were many others 
who might be induced to interest themselves in some branch of 
science or literature; and the idea of the founders was to em- 
brace all these in one organization. 

The second article of the constitution reads thus: “The ob- 
ject of this association shall be to increase the knowledge of 
science among its members, and awaken a spirit of scientific 
investigation among the people.” This article was, unfortunate- 
ly, too limited. It should have embraced literature also, and 
the society from the first to this time has done so. 

Its object was two-fold: first, to study science ourselves, and 
second, to awaken a spirit of scientific investigation among the 
people. ‘T’o accomplish this, or even to maintain the existence 
of a society, it was necessary to broaden the field and embrace 
literature. Though this was not set forth in the constitution 
I know it was true and it is proven by the records at an early 
day by the appointment of, among other committees, one on 
literature. How well the association has fulfilled its mission I 
will endeavor to show by the records. 

The Scientific Association of Peoria was formally organized 
April 17, 1875, with the following corps of officers: President, 
Dr. W. H. Chapman; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. B. L. T. Bourland, 
Dr. J. T. Stewart and Dr. Frederick Brendel; Corresponding 
Secretary, Prof. S. H. White; Recording Secretary, Miss Emma 
A. Smith; Treasurer, Sidney Pulsifer. 

The first work of the society was to organize a summer school 


6 Peoria Scientific Association. 


for the study of the natural sciences. This was in every sense 
of the word a success. Prof. Wood, of New York, took the 
botany class and gave a series of lectures and field excursions. 
Prof. Hyatt, of New York, lectured on chemistry and botany. 
Profs. Wilder and Comstock, of Cornell University, lectured on 
natural history, entomology, zodlogy, etc. This was an exceed- 
ingly interesting school conducted by some of the most talented 
professors in America. The: society raised for it $928.75 and 
expended $782.46, leaving a balance in the treasury of $146.29. 

At the first meeting of the society after the close of the sum- 
mer school the work was divided and committees appointed on 
the following subjects: 1, Botany; 2, Geology and Palentology; 
3, Mineralogy; 4, Zoology; 5, Entomology; 6, Literature. 

Meetings were held at this time monthly and continued to be, 
except in summer for about seven years. Since that time they 
have been held weekly. The average attendance for the first 
seven years was probably about twelve. Since that time it has 
materially increased. During the first year besides the summer 
school there were five papers read as follows: Crusts of the 
Earth; Alternate Generation; Aphides; Geographical Distribu- 
tion of Plants and Netreology. 


Second Year— Arboriculture; A Paper on Words; Meteoro- © 


logical Report for Twenty Years; Amphioxis; Thermometrical 
and Barometrical Observations for February; Lamprey Hels—6. 


Third Year—Spiders; Geology; Fishes; Origin of Language; — 


four papers on Fishes; Metric System; Serpents; Vines; Lecre 
Orimmacoricola; Osteology of Amblytoma; Fossil Ganoids —11. 

Fourth Year — Eye; Botany; Osteological Symmetry of the 
Human Frame; Bark Louse; Coal Formation of Peoria; Scien- 
tific Methods of Education; Meteorological Observations; Influ- 
ence of Soil on Plants; Influence of Soil on the Growth of 
Plants; Sound Producing Insects; Life in the Illinois River; 
Anatomy of Vertebrates; Importance of Science and Develop- 
ment of Scientific Knowledge; Flight of Birds; Zodlogy; Silk 
Worms; Zodlogy—17. 

Fifth Year— Prairies and Their Treelessness; Historical 


Sketches of Early American Botanists; Ethnology; Does — 


- 


Its History, Aims and Objects. 7 


Wheat Ever Change into Chess? Chemistry; Utilitarianism; 
Coal Formations — 7. 

Sixth Year—Origin of Life; Botany; Origin of Individuals; 
Alternate Generation; Natural Science and Mechanical Inven- 
tion the Basis of Civilization; The Sun and What We Know 
About It; Artesian Wells; Influence of Science on Moral Pro- 
gress and Material Improvement — 8. 

Seventh Year—The Weather; Ethnography of European 
Turkey; Farinaceous Seeds; How We Heat Our Houses; The 
Relations of the Lower Animals to Man in the Matter of Intel- 
lect, Instinct, Moral Faculties, ete.; Review of the Evolution 
Theories; Moral Sense; Water Supply; Heat, Its Manner and 
Mode of Motion; Darwinism; The Prairies and their Treeless- 
ness; Geology; Composition and Theory of the Origin of 
Coal — 13. 

Highth. Year— Forestry, and the Doings of the American 
Forestry Congress; Water; Use of the Microscope in the Detec- 
tion of Adulterated Powder Drugs; Wonder Working Scien- 
tifically Considered; Economical Generation of Steam; Oregon, 
Its Climate, People and Inducements; Some Remaining Prob- 
lems in Science; The Place which Hypothesis Holds in Science; 
Theory of Heating Rooms; Growth of Plants; Electricity, 
Scientific Methods in Education; Electricity and its Relation to 
Other Forces in Nature; Witchcraft and Demonology; Growth 
of Plants; Shade Trees, Indigenous Shrubs and Vines; Purifi- 
eation of Water; Ghosts and What are They? A Physical 
Reason why Man is Right-handed; Powers of the Microscope; 
Edible Fruits and Their Acids; Essentials of Vision; Chemis- 
try of Fruit-ripening; Antiquity of Prehistoric Man; Is the 
Public School System a Failure? Engineering; Scientitic Theo- 
ries Based upon Mere Apparent Truths; Testimony of the 

Rocks; Is Darwinism True? The Origin of Man; Recent 
Floods in Different Countries; Parasites of Man; What is an 
Architect ?— 33. 

Ninth Year— Hypnotism and Allied Phenomena; Volcanic 
Action; Missing Link; Growth of Forests and Causes of Prai- 
ries; Cosmical Dynamics; Government; Human Parasites; 
Anatomy of Snakes; Steam Using; Amoebea and its Life; 


8 Peoria Scientific Association. 


Electricity, its Effects on Animal and Vegetable Life; Fuel of 
the Sun; Archeology; Frictional Electricity; Mind Reading; 
Ferns; The Effect of Climatic Influences on the Mental and 
Physical Development of Man; Electricity as a Means of Com- 
municating Thought; Mind and its Relation to Matter; Popu- 
larization of Scientific Methods; Dawn of Authentic History; 
Beginning and Progress of Evolution; Illusions and their 
Causes; Modern Physical Science; Is the Supernatural Natural ? 
Physical Effects of Mental Causes; Froebel Education; The 
Properties of Matter; The Philosophy of Some Old Theories; 
Who were Our Ancestors? Cause and Effect; Man—8S1. 

Tenth Year—The God Serapis of American Politics; The 
Geographical Distribution of American Plants; The Destructi- 
bility and Utility of Water; The Life that Now is; Cyclones, 
Storms and Tornadoes; Oxidation; Mounds and Mound Build- 
ers; Personal Efforts in Promoting Longevity; Heredity; New 
England, the Old and the New; Myths, their Origin and Devel- 
opment: Unscientific Astronomy; Is This a Degenerate Age? 
The Ear and its Cure; Coal Oil, its Source and Use; The Rise 
and Development of the Healing Art; The Part that Oxygen 
Plays in the Organic World; Some of the Relations of Heat to 
the Living World; Electricity, Magnetism and Human Nature; 
Mind in Animals; Materia Medica; One of the Great Literary 
Secrets of the Nineteenth Century; Our Saxon Ancestors; The 
Microscope, its Construction and Uses; Is there Scientific Evi- 
dence for a Belief in Immortality? Customs and Manners; 
Meteorology of the Present and Past Thirty Winters Compared; 
Some Missing Links; Development; The Labor Question; The 
Progress of thought; Nature; City Government and Historical 
Sketches of Tammany Hall; Bearing of Skepticism on Science; 
Outlines of Race History—35, aggregating 167 papers and lec- 
tures which have been presented to this society since its organi- 
zation. Some of them have been light, but the majority have 
been elaborate and valuable, some of them opening a mine of — 
thought and worthy a place in the best scientific or literary 
magazines. After reading these papers it has been our custom 
to discuss the subject of them. This exercise has been a source 
of great interest and profit. 


SSS eee 


Its History, Aims and. Objects. 9 


The number of charter members in May, 1875, was thirteen; 
the enrolled membership now is seventy-three. 

As I said before, for the first seven or eight years the average 
attendance was about twelve; year before last it was thirty-five, 
and last year fifty-four. 

The museum now contains more than 10,000 specimens, some 
of them very valuable. ‘The herbarium embraces the entire 
flora of this section, and more. 

The library contains about 150 volumes. 

To show the interest the public are taking in this, I will say 
that the curator’s books show that since the rooms have been 
kept open to the public during year before last 5,948 persons, 
not members, visited them, and last year 7,700. 

The liberal poliev of the county, through her board of super- 
visors, in giving us the use of a suit of rooms for our museum, 
and for holding our meetings in, has been a material benefit to 
us, has reflected great credit on it, and is worthy of the highest 
commendation. Not only this, but when these rooms became 
well filled with a rich store of valuable specimens, and the mem- 
bers increased at our meetings till they could not be accommo- 
dated in them, we have been permitted to hold our meetings in 
the supervisors’ room. Tor all this they have our hearty thanks 
and the thanks of the public generally. The glory of Athens 
was her schools of science and art. These schools made Athens, 
made Greece. | 

Heretofore, Peoria has never been noted for any high attain- 
ments in science, literature or art, or of a high order of educa- 
tional institutions, but it can now justly boast of the best scien- 
tific association in the state. And I may add that it now has a 
school of art which is fully equal to any other in the state. May 
we not take courage from this and go on with our labor with 
renewed energy, hoping for still better days? 

Those who have attended these meetings for the last ten 
years must have learned much. <A spirit of inquiry has been 
awakened in this community as shown by the increased attend- 
ance at our meetings and the large number of visitors to the 
museum for the last two years, and a very considerable amount 


10 Peoria Scientific Association. 


of scientific and literary matter has been disseminated among 
the people. 

No great things can be accomplished without great labor. It 
is not spasmodic effort, but steady, persevering labor which tells. 
It was not the brilliant array of professors who so successfully 
conducted that summer school ten years ago, which put this 
society on a firm basis, but it was the years of hard work which 
was done by a little faithful band who knew no such word as 
fail. While they were all the time reaping a rich reward for 
their labors, it was more than seven years before their work was 
at all appreciated by the public, and now there are but a com- 
paratively few who take any interest in it. It is to awaken this 
interest which is one of the objects, one of the aims of the 
society. If now, with the increased numbers and the increased . 
interest which has been awakened, we shall work in the future 
harmoniously and faithfully as we have in the past, we can 
achieve a grand success. We need both brain-work and money. 
We need a building, and the art school should be allied with 
us. We need facilities for publishing our transactions. Then 
we can let our light shine; we can then by exchanges get the 
transactions of all other similar institutions. I know of nothing 
which would give more character to the city, or have a better 
influence over it, than an institution of this kind. While men 
of means are building monuments to perpetuate their memory, 
if they would build such a monument as this it would be more 
enduring than granite. ‘The Cooper Institute in New York will 
perpetuate his memory long after the material walls have 
crumbled into dust. Girard College will do the same by its 
founder. ‘There are men in Peoria who have the same oppor- 
tunity. Will they embrace it? 

There are opportunities open-to all men in life, but how few 
embrace them. An opportunity lost is gone forever. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, after reviewing the past and set- 
ting forth the objects of our association in the beginning of a 
new year is it asking too much to ask you personally one and 
all to take an interest in and feel a personal responsibility for 
the carrying out of its objects? We do not need to go abroad, 
we have rarely done so heretofore. Nearly all the work has 


Its History, Aims and Objects. 11 


been done by home talent. We have plenty of talent right here. 
All we want is to develop it, to bring it out, utilize it. We are 
much indebted to the President, Dr. Colburn for the degree of 
prosperity we now enjoy. He has kindly consented to take a 
third term, and we must sustain him, and by sustaining him the 
society. 


PEORIA SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, 





RECORDING SECRETARY’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING May 1, 1886. 





If at the close of last year the Association could congratulate 
itself on a marked degree of prosperity, the same can be said 
truthfully of the year now closed. The membership has in- 
creased-from 73 to about 100, the average attendance from 54 
to 105, and the interest in the lecture-course has been continu- 
ous. ‘The discussions have been well-sustained and free from 
all acrimony, whilst giving ample evidence of independence in 
the expression of diverse opinions; thus indicating clearly that 
the primary objects of the Association are kept strictly in view, 
and that here is a common meeting-place for all shades of opin- 
ion in matters of science and literature, where the studious and 
knowledge-loving can meet and discuss, and even argue the 
point without the danger of personal dispute or invidious reflec- 
tions. The well-known tendency of religious and political dis- 
cussion to lead to unpleasant misunderstanding had long ago 
determined this Association to eschew all such elements of pos- 
sible discord, without, however, intending any disrespect to 
these important interests, and the strict enforcement of this 
policy during the lecture-course just closed has helped, beyond 
doubt, to the perfect harmony that has characterized all the 
debates, and yet there has been no repression of the expression 
of the reverential element, and the more prominent religious 
workers of our city who have contributed to the large and 
attentive audiences, have had frequent evidence that in this 
Association when the religious tendency in man’s nature is 
brought within the circle of scientific discussion, the Peoria 
Scientific Association is ever ready for all the freedom for ex- 
pression that any reasonable lecturer or debater can claim 
judiciously. 

It may be added that the lectures and debates, besides dis- 
seminating much knowledge and information, have furnished — 
an important school of rhetoric and discussion for the younger 


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i 


Peoria Scientific Association. 13 


members and visitors, whom it is hoped by this experience may 
be habituated and encouraged in due time to take upon them- 
selves their share of duty in this department of our city’s intel- 


-lectual activities. The lectures have been the efforts of local 


talent solely. They have been thirty-five in number, as per 
subjoined list. 

Dr. J. T. Stewart—“ History of the Association;” Dr. O. B. 
Will—* Who are the Scientists?” Dr. F. Brendel—“Grasshop- 
pers;’ Dr. E. M. Colburn—* Prehistoric Man in America;” Rev. 
G. B. Stocking—“The Science of Manhood;” Mrs. Oliver 
White—“ The Science of Benevolence;” Dr. John Murphy— 
“Poetry and History;” Mr. Charles 8. Clark—“The Laws of 
Nature as Applied to the Affairs of Life;’ Mr. W. H. Park— 
“ Peoria Industries, Introductory; Mr. Carl Feinse— Political 
Economy;” Mr. A. W. Beasley—“ Hducation;” Mr. J. H. Sedg- 
wick—*“ Evolution of Science;’ Judge Hopkins —“Ancient 
Greeks and Modern Americans Compared;” Dr. Henry T. Cof- 
fee—‘Advantages of Scientific Knowledge;” Mr. E. F. Bald- 
win—* Problems of Civilization;’ Mr. John F. King—“ Our 
Earth, Past and Future;” Dr. E. M. Colburn—“ Epidemic De- 
lusions;” Mr. Carl Feinse—“ Political Economy;” Mr. M. C. 
Quinn—‘ The Franchise:” Mr. Wm. Hawley Smith—* Logic 
and Paradox;” Mrs. Clara P. Bourland—“ German Schools;” 
Dr. F. Brendel—* Early French Settlements in the Western 
States;’ Dr. J. T. Stewart—*The World’s Flora;’ Mr. E. P. 
Sloan—* The Labor Question;” Rev. EH. F. Howe—* Missionary 
Contributions to Science;” Mr. Oliver White—“ Mechanical En- 
gineering; Mr. A. G. Tyng—“ The Earth Prepared for Civilized 
Man;” Major H. W. Wells—“ Words, their Derivation and 
Use;” Prof. G. E. Knepper—‘ Education;” Prof. N.C. Dougher- 
ty—‘ Natural Science and Mechanical Arts Tests of Civiliza- 
tion;” Rev. F. Becker—‘ The Talmud a Factor of Civilization 
and Science;’ Mr. O. J. Bailey—‘“Charlemagne;” Dr. Klas 
Smith—* Keynotes and Nerve Vibrations;” Dr. F. Brendel— 
“Climate of Peoria; Dr. J. T. Stewart—* Lost Atlantis.” 

Respectfully submitted. 
Wm. Henry Park, - 
Recording Secretary. 


GEOLOGY OF PEORIA COUNTY. 


READ BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, OCTOBER 22, 1886. 





BY WARREN H. CHAPMAN, M.D. 





EX-PRESIDENT. 


THE history of the structure of the earth’s crust in Peoria county, is the 
history of the same throughout the great Illinois coal basin, with very few 
local peculiarities. . 

As the geological formation of our county extends down to the primary 
rocks, and from whence commenced the building of this structure, so we will 
from that point, commence the study of its records, and take a hasty review 
of the genesis of the rocks, and the laying down the strata. ’ 

This is the beginning of time as measured by these phenomena.. For before 
this, there are revealed no data, by which we can measure time — no epoch 
by which we can discover a beginning or ending. Therefore to us, so far as 
our knowledge is concerned, its history must be relegated to the unnumbered 
zeons of the past. 

‘“‘Prof. Helmholtz has calculated, from the rate of cooling lavas, that the 
earth, in passing from a temperature of 2000° to 200 F, a temperature which 
will admit the growth of the simplest forms of vegetable life, must have taken 
350,000,000 years.” 

From the first time that man beheld the rocks, the question was forced upon 
his mind whence came they? Did they grow, or were they made as we find 
them? Let us give a few moments’ thought in answer to these questions. — 

From the time the crust of the earth became cool enough to make a some- 
what solid mass, disintegration began. The atmosphere was loaded with all 
the water, carbon, lime, sulphur, soda, and some other elements, which then 
existed upon the surface of the globe, in a state of incandescent vapor. This 
was constantly being condensed, and precipitated to the earth, to be again 
converted into vapor by the great heat of its surface. 

This process resulted in the disintegration of the soft, rocky mass; and as 
time progressed to a considerable depth. But in the course of time, the sur- 
face became so cool that the waters remained. Now begins the process of the 
formation of the stratified rocks. The heated waters, together with the salts 
held in solution, became a powerful solvent of these disintegrated particles. 

The surging and rushing of the undercurrents of the mighty oceans, were 
a potential force, grinding and pulverizing these loosened particles, to a greater 
or less degree of comminution. 

Then again, upon the shores of the seas, the ever restless waves, impinged 
with great force, grinding them, during all the ages, and carrying the detritus 
thus made into the wide oceans. 

And lastly, the air, the frosts, and the rains, had their share, in providing 
the material from which all the stratified rocks are made, excepting the lime- 
stones. 

Had it not been for these disintegrating agencies the crust of the earth 
would have been to-day one solid rock. | 

Now this material, having been deposited at the bottom of the oceans, was 
again formed into rock; some by simple mechanical pressure, others by chem- 


Geology of Peoria County. , 15 


ical affinity of their constituents, each aided probably by a cementing process 
from mineral or metalic solutions. But the time, the heat, and the pressure, 
were doubtless most potential, in accomplishing these results. 

Of these rocks, we find some of almost pure quartz, or feldspar, or mica, or 
other elementary substances; others are a mixture of crystalline fragments as 
in the granites, of quartz, feldspar and mica, or the syenites, in which horn- 
blend takes the place of mica, or the diorites which are composed mostly of 
feldspar and hornblend. 

But while these modes of-rock formation were in progress, another of a very 
different character was taking place. Jimestone in large quantities is found, 
in these first made — the Laurentian beds. How did it get there? It was not 
formed like the rocks just described. It is the product of the animal king- 
dom; its source from animal life. 

For a long time no evidence had been discovered that life existed during 
the formation of these strata, except the limestone itself. But at last the 
little architect of these vast limestone ledges was found,— the Hozoin Cana- 
dense,— meaning the dawn of life. 

The shelly coverings of this minute animal,— was the source of the material 
from which the limestone was formed. They belong to the lowest order of 
animal life. Are classed with the Foraminifera of the group Protozoa. We 
are well acquainted with them, and their work, for they are as active to-day, 
as at that time, right under our observation. Their life-work is apparent, and 
doubtless has been during all the ages. 

Large areas of the bottom of the North Atlantic are covered with their 
remains to a depth we have no means of determining. It is called Globerge- 
rina ooze. Under the microscope they are seen to be of many forms and sizes, 
and of beautiful colors. 

It is remarkable, that the few specimens found, should have been preserved 
through all the changes, to tell their story. Changes resulting from the great 
heat which metamorphosed these stones, and the “forces which have broken, 
_and folded, and crumpled, the Laurentian beds in a most remarkable manner.”’ 

Thus was formed the Archaen system, which includes both the Laurentian 
and Huronian beds. And in like manner were deposited and formed all the» 
rocks of succeeding time. The higher strata, however, were formed from the 
detritus of the secondary rocks; and a great portion of the limestones were 
from the remains of larger and higher orders, of which the radiates became a 
very important factor. These two beds were piled up, until they attained a 
thickness in Canada of 40,000 to 50,000 feet. Seven to nine miles in height! 

How long did it take to accomplish this vast work? Any estimate of the 
time must be more or lesgconjectural, but if we make one year a unit in the 
life of aman, we must take one million years as a unit in the life of the 
earth’s growth. 

One scientist, Sir Wm. Hamilton, I think, estimates that seventy millions 
of years must have elapsed from the first Laurentian deposits until the pres- 
ent time. Croll makes it one hundred million. 

The whole globe was covered with water during the time of the formation 
of these beds, except a narrow strip of land, shaped like a bended arm, the 
elbow resting on Lake Superior and extending to the Northwest to the arctics, 
and Northeast to Labrador, together with a few small islands, some of which 
were the nuclei of subsequent mountain ranges. 

It was in the /ower Laurentian that the beginnings of life were found. The 
first was doubtless that of vegetable life; although we find thus far, no records 
of any individual plants in their original forms, yet, the resultants of such 
life are found, in the graphites so considerably distributed throughout the ~ 
beds. It is also quite certain that animal life could not have existed without 
this necessary food —‘‘a vegetable pabulum floating in the water.” 


16 Geology of Peoria County. 


We will now ascend the geological column many thousand feet, to the next 
series. A long time has elapsed; a great gap in our knowledge of the succession 
of life intervenes. The upper Laurentian and Huronian beds have been laid 
down, and ages await the arrival of the new series — the Cambrian. We now 
begin to see life expressed in new and varied forms. But that which existed 
in the lower Cambrian — the Acadian — was all destroyed before the next, the 
Potsdam beds appear. 

In these latter strata, we find a large increase of living forms, and a greater ~ 
variety of species. Of plants are found, however, but one variety, the Fucoids. 
But of the fauna are representatives of the four sub-kingdoms: Protozoan, 
Radiates, Mollusks, and the Articulates. Of the trilobites alone nearly one 
hundred species are described, in this and the next beds. 

Passing up along the line of this column, through the Silurian and Devon- 
ian periods, we are amazed at the records of the works of the Master Builder! 
Fhe remarkable variety and beauty of the forms of life! The immense piles 
of the superstructure; the great power of the oceans as made manifest in the 
history of its building. 

Between the Archaen and Carboniferous periods eleven times has the earth 
been submerged in this county during long intervals, and eleven times has 
she in turn, arisen in her might, and thrown off her watery covering. 

During these perpendicular oscillations of the earth’s surface, the follow- 
ing groups of rocks were formed. Of the lower Silurian the Acadian, Pots- 
dam, Calciferous, Chazy, Trenton and Cincinnati. Of the upper Silurian, the 
Niagara, Lower Helderberg, and Oriskany. Of the Devonian, the Cornifer- 
ous and Hamilton. 

We have now arrived at the Subcarboniferous epochs. We here have five 
groups: the Kinderhook, Chester, Burlington, Keokuk and St. Louis. ‘These 
are the middle ages of the world’s history.””’ The heat of the earth’s surface 
was yet so great, that the carbon in a large measure still floated in the upper 
regions of the atmosphere. But toward the close of this period, it began to 
settle to the earth, ‘‘enveloping it with its dark and noxious gases.” We 
have yet seen few land plants, but now they begin to feed upon this carbon, 
and assume large and beautiful proportions. © 

Air breathing animals “were yet slumbering in the chambers of the future.” 
Quoting from Prof. Winchell: ‘‘In these ages, the shallow sea became a 
marsh, and a foothold for terrestrial vegetation was established. The all- 
adaptive hand of Nature planted the soil with many kinds of herbs and trees. 
Simultaneously on every side innumerable germs spring up from the new- 
made sediments. Vegetation in varied types and family alliances starts forth 
at we fiat of creative energy, and the world is dressqad in a garment of shining 
verdure.” 


COAL FORMATION. 


The carbonic acid so heavily loading the air; the great humidity, and the 
heat stimulated the growth of these plants to a remarkable degree. New and 
beautiful forms were continually appearing. The Calamite, the Ulodendron, 
the Sigillaria, the Lepidodendron (club mosses), the Megaphyton, and many 
other genera with their multiplied species, grew to a great, and constantly 
increasing momentum, until they reached immense proportions. Standing in 
marshes or shallow water, in dense forests, in a soil of rich clay, as they came 
to old age, fell, or were swept down by the tornados of the wilderness, and 
buried beneath the waters at their feet. There they remained in a sound or 
partially decayed condition for centuries. This process of decadence and new 
growth, continued until layer upon layer had been deposited to a depth of 
from ten to fifty or more feet, of compact vegetable matter. It is probable 
that while this was in progress, the ground settled slowly so as to keep the 
material covered with water, which preserved it from decay. 


Geology of Peoria County. 17 


It was probably macerated in the warm waters so long, that it was reduced 
to a pulpy mass, from which was leached the potash and other soluble salts, 
leaving little else than the carbon and pitchy bitumen, which were insoluble, 
and into which also was infiltrated, in solution, the iron, sulphur and other 
impurities we find in it. 

It is estimated that it required ten feet of this carbonaceous matter, to 
make one of our bituminous coal. 

Finally, there comes a more rapid, and deeper submergence. Now also come 
the waters in swift, surging currents, laden with mud brought from distant 
and higher regions. This, settling down upon the stratum of carbonaceous 
material, formed by intermingling with the upper and looser portions of it, 
the bituminous shales and slates, which made a covering to the coal seams, and 
protected them from the grosser materials which were subsequently superim- 
posed upon them. 

The pressure of these limestones, clays, sands, gravels, etc., which were 
deposited upon them; the high temperature which still inhered in the earth 
below, and the great length of time, resulted in the formation of coal as we 
now have it. 

“Boussingault calculates that luxuriant growth of vegetation at the pres- 
ent day, takes from the atmosphere about half a ton of carbon per acre annu- 
ally, or, fifty tons per acre in a century. Fifty tons of coal spread evenly 
over an acre of surface would make a layer of one-third inch. But suppose 
it to be half an inch; then, the time required for the accumulation of a seam 
of coal three feet thick, would be seven thousand two hundred years. 

The first seam formed is called No.1. Upon this was deposited, first, dark 
sandy shale twenty-five feet, showing that there was carried in, fine sand which 
settled down between the loose parts of the wood to a depth of twenty-five 
feet and formed a compact shaly mass. But the sand continued to come in 
and above that we find five feet of fine-grained, compact sandstone. Then 
comes a mixture of clay and the pulverized shells and skeletons of sea ani- 
mals, which formed six feet. of nodular .argillaceous limestone. Then comes 
again the sand, and four feet more of sandstone was formed. Now comes again 
a mixture of clay and sand, and thirty-four feet of very hard, sandy, argilla- 
ceous shale results. Upon this was laid an impure clay, which made twenty- 
five feet of clay shale. And finally, upon this a comparatively pure clay, and 
we find nine feet of fire-clay; making deposits of one hundred and eight feet 
before we come to seam No. 2. 

There seems to be some discrepancy in the records of the strata between 
Nos. 2 and 3 from the sections we get from borings. But a very close approx- 
imation makes the deposifs about ninety-two feet, of much the same material 
and order as those below, though they vary in different localities. 

The next series, between 3 and 4, attain a thicknes varying from fifty to 
seventy-five feet, the next forty to forty-five feet, and above No, 5, thirty-five 
feet. Above No. 6 thirty feet, and soon the beds becoming thinner as we 
pass upward. ee 

These beds, as I have said, vary in different parts of the county. The 
measures dip to the east and north, some three feet to the mile. This makes 
the combined thickness of the strata seventy-five or more feet greater, conse- 
quently coal No. 1 is seventy-five feet deeper on the eastern than the western 
limits of the same. 


FIRE CLAY. 


It will be readily seen, that limestone of itself, gravel and gravel tonglom- 
erates, sand and sandstones, are not very largely endowed with plant food; 
and, although all other things might have favored plant growth at different 
times during the intervals in which these interdeposits were made, yet they 
had to wait the arrival of the clay beds before the flora again revived. 


18 Geology of Peoria County. 


We find a bed of fire clay immediately under each coal seam. Was it from 
that source the plants derived their nourishment? 

Fire clay is an aluminum silicate, which contains very little food for plants. . 

It was doubtless the fact, that these beds were our common clays, contain- 
ing the nitrates, and other nutrient elements which supplied the plants. The 
thousands of years during which the forests stood upon this clay, taking from 
it these elements, left only those portions, of which they could make but 
little use, namely, the silica and aluminum. Hence, the fire clay. 

We have in this county, nine separate coal strata, in which we find all their 
characteristics. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 have not as yet been worked. No. 4 fur- 
nishes most of the coal we use at present. No 5 is nearly altogether wanting 
in coal. There isaseam of it of narrow extent, twelve to eighteen inches 
thick, on Section 24, Limestone township. No. 6 has been used quite exten- 
sively. It is much freer from earthy impurities than No. 4, is softer, and bet- 
ter for the blacksmith’s use. From No. 7 was taken, all the coal used, in the 
western parts of the county for many years. Nos. 8 and 9 have afforded no 
coal (unless a little said to be from No. 8 in the northeast part of the county) 
perhaps from the fact, that they had no clay, from which arboral growths 
could be sustained. | 

A bed of No. 9. in the horizon in which we should find it, lies near the sur- 
face of the prairie on the N.W. quarter of Section 2 in Kickapoo township. 
A bed of two or three feet in thickness, of soft, shaly, argillaceous limestone; 
rich in fossils, of which the Athyris subtilita, Spirifer camerata, and Myalina 
angulata largely predominate; these and many others are taken out in a very 
perfect condition. This lies upon a gravel bed, several feet in depth, in which 
are found also the,same species. 

The variations in the thickness of the coal seams, indicate variations in the 
conditions under which they were formed. There may have been, for instance, 
but a few acres in extent, that had all the conditions necessary for the full 
development of the forest growth. Surrounding, or by the side of this forest 
field, the grounds may have been too high, or too low, or other causes may 
have existed, which prevented its full growth. Hence a thinner bed. 

We have now arrived at the top of the geological column. We have passed 
twenty-eight distinct strata. Fourteen of these belong to the carboniferous 
series. We have had in review the formation of the rocks; have hada 
glimpse of the first life that appeared upon the earth, and observed its 
progress in after ages; we have seen the carbon which loaded the atmosphere 
taken from it, and stored away in the coal beds to be preserved for the uses of 
man in the future; we have seen the wonderful flora, which was instrumental 
in accomplishing this work, and by which meang the air was purified and 
made fit for the use of air-breathing animals. And finally, have seen with 
delight the varied and beautiful fauna which inhabited the seas, the remains 
of which, though mute, speak loudly of the history of their generations. 
They have been also the recording pens which traced upon the rocks in graphic 
lines, their history, to be read by man in long ages subsequent. 

Our habitation is upon ancient grounds. Long ages, after our last sub- 
mergence, when our highest rock stratum was formed,—long after we became 
dry land, the states of New Jersey, east Pennsylvania, Delaware, eastern 
Maryland and Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, southern Ala- 
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, west Tennessee and Kentucky, most of Texas, 
Indian Territory and Kansas, eastern Colorado and Wyoming, Nebraska, 
Dakota,, extending northwest to the Arctics, and western California, were 
many times under the waters. 

While our land laid in the grandeur of its silence, except the chirping of a 
few pterodactyloid birds, and the dissonant voices of the batrachian reptiles, 
the waters covering these areas were alive with enormous reptiles. The bel- 


Geology of Peoria County. 19 


lowings of the Labyrinthodon, the yells of the Ichthyosaurus, the piercing 
cry of the long-necked Plesiosaurus, filled the air, and reverberated from the 
wooded shores. 

We stand upon paleozoic ground, while the piled-up strata, as monuments 
of mesozoic and cenozoic time, stand in these other lands, as mementoes of 
times long since garnered into the annals of the dimly visible past. 


ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 


In the economical geology of this county, we are most highly favored. 
Nearly all of our territory is underlaid with beds of coal, the united maximum 
thickness of which is about twenty-five feet. This, according to Bousingault’s 
calculation, would make 45,000 tons per acre. Hence, under each farm of 
160 acres, the coal would aggregate 7,200,000 tons! But, the variations in the 
thickness of the beds are such, that we are not warranted in basing our calcu- 
lations upon that amount. I think it safe, however, to assume half that 
thickness as an averoge through the county. Taking this measure, one acre 
of coal, at one cent per bushel, will sum up an amount equal to the present 
value of the surface of the whole farm in most instances. Prof. Worthen 
estimates, that we have an average of seventeen feet under nearly all the 
county. 

Of these coal seams Nos. 4, 6 and 7 are of very easy access; can be worked 
with very little expense, as compared with that of most other countries. 

- An average of three analyses of No. 4 coal gives but 6 per cent. ashes, 
which indicates a greater freedom from earthy impurities than many others. 

An interesting question comes in—What becomes of this carbon we are 
now taking so rapidly from these beds and converting by combustion into 
carbonic acid gas, which passes into the atmosphere? You answer that vege- 
tation takes it. But vegetation seemed to have enough before we began to 
dig it out of the earth. The earth and seas are absorbing a portion by the de- 
composition of vegetable matter, also the direct absorption of the gas, but 
has this increased? It undoubtedly has. The world is converting more than 
three hundred million tons of carbon into gas annually; and yet we can dis- 
cover no perceptible increase of it in the atmosphere. 

Another important item of value isour stone. The sandstone above No. 4 
in the Kickapoo bluffs if properly selected, make as durable building stone as 
any, without exception. That to be selected should be of the ferruginous 
variety, taken out of the quarry late in the autumn, or during the winter, so 
that it will not become dry before the frosts of winter strike it; then, if the 
_ freezing and thawing does not disintegrate the blocks, they can be relied upon 
as equaling any stone that can be found for building purposes. 

Our limestones also are valuable for buildings and making lime. Our sands 
and gravels have their value also. Our clays make a most excellent brick. 
They contain a considerable amount of hydrated oxide of iron, and in burn- 
ing, the water, or hydrogen, is driven off, leaving the peroxide of iron, which 
not only gives the peculiarly reddish color to the bricks, but gives them a 
greater degree of hardness. 


DRIFT, 


The manner in which our clays, sands, and gravels accumulated upon the 
surface, has been a subject of much discussion.. It is now generally conceded, 
however, that they were brought here by the agencies of ice and water. 
There was a time after our series of coal strata were completed, when there 
_ was probably a great uplifting of the surface of the earth, in regions north of 
us. This elevation was so great, that snow and ice accumulated upon it with 
constant persistency. The glaciers were thus formed as a necessary resultant. 


20 Geology of Peoria County. 


They were pressed down by an increasing weight, which became an irresistible 
force; taking with them huge boulders, which ground the rocks beneath them, © 
also carrying with them, and upon them, large accumulations of debris, torn 
from the mountain sides as they passed down. This debris was spread over the 
country as far south as the Ohio River. 

Icebergs are also regarded as having been largely instrumental in the distri- 
bution of our drift deposits. They floated upon seas covering the land during 
the latter portion of the existence of the glaciers. It is not improbable that 
they floated upon the great fresh water lake of more recent time; this lake 
having been continuous from the age of the glaciers. 

To what depth the drift accumulated we have no means of determining. 
That the surface was more than one hundred feet higher than now, is evident 
from the fact that the mound at Elmwood is more than one hundred feet 
higher than the average surface of country surrounding it. This mound con- 
sists of stones, gravel and sand, which was too heavy to be washed away with 
the finer clays and sands around it. 

It is thought that the glaciers must have gouged out the basins of the 
northern lakes. If this is true, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Peoria 
Lake basin was gouged out in like manner. For the rock and coal beds have 
been cut out and carried away, for a distance of some twenty miles in length 
and three or four in width along the west side of the river. 

The lake has been some four miles wide, and several hundred feet deep. 
The water filled all the space between the bluffs to their surface, or near it, 
for a long time, as evinced by the erosion of the sandstone that crops out a 
few miles below Ottawa. During the time in which the Lake which covered 
our county existed, our lake basin was again filled with new deposits. These 
are called “ modified drift.” 

When these waters passed away, the channels were again washed out, and - 
left in the present condition of valley, and river beds. But for a long time 
subsequent, the volume of water was so large as to cover the valley to a con- 
siderable depth, from which came the materials which formed the plateaus, 
upon which Peoria stands. This is called the “Terrace Epoch.” 

Thus, we have the phenomena of the drift deposits. They vary in depth, 
from a few feet, to more than one hundred. More than one-half have proba- 
bly been carried away by the rushing waters. But enough remains to answer 
the purpose of the Great Designer. 

They are the last formation that prepared the earth for the fullest expression 
of the Creator’s designs—the habitation of man—who in himself was the 
fullest expression of the Creator Himself. 


DYNAMICAL GEOLOGY. 


In the dynamica! geology of the county I have but little to report. There 
are found some “faults” in the coal beds. At Sword’s lime-kiln on the north- 
east quarter of Section 10, in Limestone township, was found beneath a stra- 
tum of limestone ten feet thick, a fissure twelve to fourteen inches wide, filled 
with heavy spar (Barytes Sul.) and zine blend (Zinc Sul.) 

These minerals are not usually found in the carboniferous strata, but belong 
to the lower Silurian. This opening was doubtless made and filled before the 
deposition of the limestone above it, by forces probably from beneath, and the 
minerals in a fluid or semi-fluid condition forced up into it. 

At the Chase quarries, on the Southeast of Section 5, Akron township, the 
limestone beds have been forced up to within three feet of the surface of the 
prairie. The area thus forced up is so small, that the upward curve of the 
bed is perceptible; showing a number of breaks about two feet wide atthe 
top tapering down to a point at the lower side. 


Geology of Peoria County. 21 


The dip of the strata indicate a lifting up somewhere to the southwest of 
our county limits. This is all I know of the disturbances of the strata. They 
lie conformably upon one another, and upon the strata below them. 


THE PRAIRIES. 


“From the earliest knowledge of our prairies, speculation has been rife as 
to their origin.””’ Many hypotheses have prevailed as to the cause of their 
treelessness. I will name some of them. The burning of the grass by the 
Indians. The dryness of the atmosphere. The excessive moisture in early 
times. The fineness of the soil. And finally, the one more generally accepted 
at present, their lacustrine origin. But if, as we suppose, it was through the 
agency of the waters of this lake, the long continued floods, while running 
off, carried away so much of the drift,. leaving a surface of pure clay, sand 
and gravel; this theory is also wanting in a good basis. 

The fact that we have natural forests, that trees will grow when planted 
upon the prairies, shows the inadequateness of any of these theories to give a 
good reason for the phenomenon. 

I can see, however, reasons why the burning droughts we often have, and 
the prairie fires, would materially retard the growth of the forests. Our 
arboral growths are found mainly upon the margins of the streams; we see 
also, the showers often following only their course, giving a greater amount of 
precipitation to their valleys and bluffs. 


SOILS. 


Our soils are composed mainly of clays, sands, and vegetable mould. The 
salts derived from these, in solution, constitute the food for the plants. How 
did the vegetable mould get to the depth we find it on our high, level prairies? 
It can be accounted for, only in part by the work of the gophers, ants, etc. 

When I became acquainted with the observations of Charles Darwin on the 
work of the earth worm, in which he found in a certain locality (where there 
was probably unusual activity among them), they brought to the surface, 
three inches of earth during an interval of ten years. I was at once satisfied 
that to them we are indebted mainly, not only for the mixing of our soil con- 
stituents, but for another very important consideration —the porosity of the 
soils, without which it would have been almost impossible to cultivate them. 


THE FAUNA. 


I will mention the fauna of the carboniferous period, for in that only have 
I made collections in this county. The fishes of the Devonian still remain, 
and also newer and higher types appear. It was during this time, air-breath- 
ing animals began to appear. At first a fish like, semi-amphibious batrachian, 
named Archegosaurus, which had lungs. And also followed a smaller one. 

“From these creatures the other coal reptiles diverge, and ascending along 
two lines of progress, the one leading to the gigantic crocodile-like animals, 
provided with powerful jaws and teeth; the other leading to small, delicate 
and lizard-like species, living on land and feeding on insects and similar 
creatures.” | 

It is supposed there were nearly thirty species of these reptiles that devel- 
oped during the coal period, advancing to higher orders, as the air became 
purified. No remains of them have been discovered in the county. 

Of invertebrates we have many forms. Many of those collected are new and 
unnamed species. : 

I append a classified list of those I have found which are described and 
named. 


22 Paleontology of Peoria County. 


PALEONTOLOGY OF PEORIA COUNTY. 
VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 


PLANT, 

Genus, Noeggerathia sos... ccemthps +e scone vareses See ye) RR Sternberg. 
Noegegsrathia cunifolia: 1.2. :ciees.-. seas --ockepitecsathes ves esaseh se ietaen! -eeamm Bronb. 
Genus Odentopteris .....---- sserceeee see: LB elves <eucpheebis ee] mens Cree Brong. 
Odéntopteris:netropteroides .: «1 Rimei....--. imeth acs. 1+tagdlshtesslesstanaas est eme Newb. 
Genus Sigillaria’ br....+54--<ncteMMityss- «+> divsipaein spss cosa Sy aeeieN) vees veebmiieawam Bronb. 
Sigillaria catenoides .......22-...-c-esseeunes seteeeseeneeeeeeceeteseetcrsesee ce ceeeeeees Dawson. 
a GISCOIDEGS eee eelavesi ee ne eeeEMG se... secsmeeeMpaban «aa sWereeiimy ra zaitenys repre Lesq. 

vi STMINENS 46 Ns Fadey oe np essen evs oc onbtmeMne en ses +>» 4 pruned Oey ea ena Daw. 
GeNUS Stigmarla-....ceee -eccsscscrssecsseceeveteeeseerescesceesseeesveescceesesenas Brong. 

Stig Maria ClIPtlCAe hscecsebesucs pene VUMMMe ss oss +s GeeeRRMe eb yss5 soy pos Memmi s ost aman Lesq 
: DUINLON ies oye oh oh ness ss seg emMmnrs. «+054 cRmemaaa ay ses cbs )eys Maeeeme Nem Goeppart. 
Genus Spermatosoma: { ?,)}\ pemeass.....s Jeg bieuesey. s\nncasphVcereabe@amee gi tenet Stevens. 

bs 


Spermatosoma polymorphia ( ?.).ceimes.. .....daseuibeysnc’sssorbeenad Ceueeevaeaer anne 


ANIMAL KINGDOM. 


Susp-Kine@pom PRoriIstTa. 
CLASS RHIZOPODA. 


Genus PuUsaling siecle: . cc agMaMNs s+ «..cndlsle an esas» «s'drelte iba ona e Means emene his Fisher. 
Pusulinga cylindrica .veeic ick. Cuaieeed «,... stem a Meee sehen aie a aale ie remane ae aS 
A VODLTICOBA Goes 53s dee 200MM ees. +. sKeeeehsssdegee cant whch Un naH een e ecutemeee M & H. 
Sus-Kinepom RapDIATA. 
CLASS POLYPI, 
" ORDER ZOANTHARIA. 
Family Cyathophyllide. 
Genus Axopbyllui). .'.2/cetbemess sa.... ssaaeMapeds oss.osub eat ecceuse esas eee E. & H. 
Axophyllim: infandibolum.’. cigars... ..cceeemembssesasosreetekes ceeenpuasLinee Worthen 
Genus, Oyathophyl lium. aiiiee.:.......dedaugne tes seaanekedaseiecaue rag aeuems Goldtuss 
Cyathophyllum carbonaria............... <a os 1g olbn ea Wao ERETCCRL CEOS FEE = 
Genus Zaphrentis..........- BGC)... oi Meee. od << js Se oan ea Raff. 
Zaphrentis multilamellata ...:<cgdeppeses.:.-. deapebuhe teoeosieuan vogad sbadsdap vache sospeaing rch gents 
Family Cyathoxonie. 
entis Cyathoxonia .cs upp ines: «+++ stbebeany t~cov eo oat centen sauiechiy nas Michelin. 
Cyathoxonia) prolifera tone:- 5 ccemeier es ess. 00004 MaDe keg deae erie lees ouedsclen, eee VLOOweRe 
Family Favositide. 
GenusiGhactetes)s.: :-.icesMaitnes »-<-++ 5s cums oa -p'sehvanlia ye et ue Watalsi tome ntame Fisher 
Chactetes  Carpon arias itss.--:-5cqetimiesss +55. . degen elooe ch Me mena eh acter sae yaaa Worthen 


MAING POTACCOUB,....-camNNs oo we ++. SHRMMMMD se oo nodbpacudanendestseapnty yteai ane Troost. 


Genus SYFBPOPOrA «:....cagemeearssnr soscehUblnnsosn oc kmssindbdiaatves wmneen aesemt eae Gold. 
Syringopora multattennata.......csceceeseceeees Bog s+ cna as dBbad uke ate a oon eT one tae McC, 


Paleontology of Peoria County. 23 


ECHINODERMATA. 
ORDER CRINOIDEA. 
Family Cyathocrinide. 
Genus Zeacrinus.........c.sse0-e- ae A ee delieteeca LTOORG 
BRCACEINUS IMTMETOSPINUS <r..........0000 atbecsoees scasdgeue oe ae. ae banseersesebes LOU; 


Susp-Kinapom Mo.nuusKa. 
CLASS BRYZOA. 
Family oe ide. 


(FEDS PDVME POTS avec... +... c MMM ases-- dag | ae Are ASP PEA ee PEH King. 
Py epora ehretibergi -...2..............0ases Becv> MMMM consi obi senses aedeeghol@eh ae « Gein. 


CLASS BRACHIOPODA. 
Family Discinide. 
CLOTIUGN cL IISCIIIO, cacocketedeec’'s... SAME aeeccee o Seeae ves Ae dasa entes CARAS de SS fale -Lam. 
Discina nitida...... wie Pek PHRIEG t.. . 2. Ree cdecd savteniacerUcebiak cates: ED, 


Family Orthide. 
Genus Meekella ................ ee SMR. os loss BRD wig! W. & St. I. 


OICETIA BLEAILO-COSLACH a cisce'oere'’ + «+ baceMMeen (55~.. ologuaeoebales saucch cae sHedesadersics Cox 
MAEETT PEELE IS cc ck sce sons oc 4s 0.060 see ERR EA ga Ss OS aS Set BY Salman. 
BOREEIS? DOCOR Rss cox: voc'ets (used ducncs.s00 oosb ache BIE -<3-s JauasPaMmnesas «66 PYcsen4 stecaee payee Marcon. 
Family Pentameride. 
Genus Camerophoriars..........cecsercsesees + eee evesessogtaet oeecacses secsesees KING, 
Camerophoria subtrigona.............. a Be, 1 ee ee eee .-M. & W. 
; Family Productide. 

Genus Chonetes.......6. cccsseevsees aR Ree ys Met Raa et ais Fish, 
Chonetes costatus.......... Aa ee Joc CERMRERL, . \s <c'c vA onc a ne ON saee dee ceeaneets Chap. 
glabra (?).....+ SRE Saas sss. = ss MMS 4s <0~ 9 UMMM +o ons famine Gignnes to's uellsnp Gein. 
as millepunctata ......... ere. eer 1 aly 2 semen ec oeac soova WNL: Oc W, 
ee MESOlODAs sconces se ss eel. ceo ey: Line aaa Bis” 2 a CANS Saab N. & RP. 

8 Vigsle ots HED ESS ab: bee Pr ee RR OT eat ete (ee oe Sate os 

PTOTIUGe PTOCUCTOS cone uigasc <-. +. cScMMRa cess cccsedee ea SS Seda’ Soaks a bow Ab Ak 
Productus PM VTELCLPL awe treet UR Esk s's <> 00 saMMEMEN Ga nso 000 ugg Gaduccine cod dalodebasocdbeekes Sow. 
cora eteeseee. eeeesees teeeseseress oe Peer sosres serene eeeeseces PPO eens seoses Hi eeeees .DeOrb. 
af lasallensis ....... Std siiaevee ss Sane BEN ik ooo PD) a eae tees Le Worthen. 
. longispinus ........... Ries ss (am cre --- dane Bntnk Suercoeud Bers eae ... SOW. 
. STVALT LOSE eae te ets oes os cans |, GEIR oe saben A boda ss dase NWN ee ES: 
As nebrascensis -..... AS SE LE S- IES cc nleees vides calle decden -Owen. 
st prattenanus............ pach. + Se . ee ERE EE ape be Norwood. 
: punctatus...... steeeeeee ceneeeerenes Bem ba scam MEN Spaesivhv ins ses set enaas Martin. 
ad BCLS) is caaeee ekeaked Ar. See | ERP ORE Se eee ere ae Martin. 
ig tubulospinus (? ) ....-..e.- see - ee se aceae roc ctv iteltitstadys cabs McC. 
Family ao 
Genus aay ey | a SEaeE Soh cs |... sca di coats aw ehu oases sesees McCoy. 
Athyris WEHRGLL Fag ores cA adc mu etARMe es 5s 6: GEMM Ravens ooo cae tite es A. Sag ..- Leville. 
planosulcata. eedouee tierce Sd: 6 SCAMS oS. DEMIMEE, Cece otalde's Sele de tates lowe «Phil 
Bs KUL GILLIES, sss tnvs shoes Seaakss so eset Os 0 ces We ooaia Sas boas ass od tepes Pi EL aAb 
rs S11 DIG IOSA ss seedee cee ox edh A. Oe MPEG AS eds Sedans eo gtionsdet nests a te 
66 


af subquadrata........ eeenesete Seeeeeeee sesessavesee SCH SOSSEH “HHH SHOE HE SEH EEH OOOOH TETE CS 


24 Paleontology of Peoria County. 


Gontis, Reta sce s.cuccc dbo thas Slee « ineebe~ Ebon stn tabs cacetiaens Sistah Canines < <anmnec ar King. 
Retzia MArcyi.....ps..cecconss scene te -saarseseaceeses nsnssscoe sesees vauaee ceecnepssuanoes Sherm. 
6 SUDZLODOSHebas>--0n pins s<cp COMMbCued s+ -c aE MONORS Ran: sat Ea oragmmny ss ene McChesney. 
Genus Spiriferina :.5.......ctiessses. sosedeses vustsesencenccanssgneenses smaMammean DeOrb. 
Spiriferina kentuckensis .......cessccccsseccccessseseceeescceseses senses cencssees cosseeees Sherm. 
Genus Spirifer .......06 006. scoseesees aoe vee Dbibea adi havees Soop soe tg ets «ss ean Sow. 
Spirifer Camerata.......cbesscsenredsscavaMins c++ +cossuQlevactene aavessledaes#sesi@elass «ou 3s emmmeEE Mart. 
We TTORTA eve cescm) ceeaentt, .< dean es. . che eee sess crwncceeseccecsseeeveee cusses Mart. 
Ké BITC ZOTA ao cvecrescievadsvocsenceggMliensces + +nss¥banieteeeses nseiueeeateuthenes (ssnammmmm Hall 
Family Strophomenide. 
Genus Streptorhynchus ...............++00++ Pecaiies. \s:Sahiece seek mater aaa M. & H. 
Streptorhynchus Crassus «.......csupeess+----.ccnienenhsan+ce- woduanae a evsquepeanaee? i 
Family Terebratulide 
Genus ‘Terebrattl aiisce: sc: cdBiec sss... ccstteeelee ssccode ve eeewerind oc sa aamaamanan Lhyd. 
Terebratula bovidemsBeersscisiosce- cAceMtn cs occ + cece Rbitibees cacaccemseamanenns 10s eta Mort. 
“ DAP VAI ce Cocds pobaas ssa pMMR oe +> +» Gag MMbeuels Juashs (ieGh imEmmnEEES is eee Swal. 
CLASS GASTEROAODA. 
on peter Opa 
Genus: Bellerophon .:s:.dcccmmsie.... .sreiegtemted st ss + «saa ce Ceamenn enti amma Monttiort 
Bellerophon CAYDONATIUS ~...02c05 caeMiavss-- ce qeOMWMMMth gs « +950ee pemagiie on aliesenn nent Cox. 
WIATCOUATIUAS cic occ beRs s « « 00 cru Cnet Riess «on so nt mEae cea nanan a Geinitz. 
" montiortanus ......s)seseeeens -. eg URNS PORE ss «'s'cis ede RL cones N. & P. 
3 NAT ELOIMSB a ince.’ coc ceeMeetes vo clans coMMInG oncasisgt et canna -- Winchell. 
Ee NLOGICATINGEUS oc. occcn sees. s... ocosah bec stint c's cacbont one tee eeenee tan Hall. 
cL PeCariNatug’? .....ceaMMeeies...-..ceeNl-caaie sda agann see ieee ane Conrad. 
i, Platyostorna a: ss....cMMREIMOR ss... aBRMis cb ieuwe (OlU Semen mig. enema M. & W. 
tVICATINATUB Sesessns RAMEE ah «0. CHIE: «cote eeluices <eineen anne mn Sherm. 
Family Dentaliide 
Genus Dentaliumis:.... iiftgetepess \.. .cctelabesadés «+casecentheenenbanl, tein a aaneaeaan Linn. 
Dentalium obsoletum << srrc.cssscacbeleaess ....cceememeaseesuces: (les enea en aLine aye Hall. 
Family Naticide. 
Genus Naticopsis........ <2 cepiaiv'ee > s+ + osanctbaee on ameet nb coals Ganges eae aman McCoy. 
Naticopsis GISPASA sco cess es .s ++ geMMMMMioes + .-oces egies shh «ivan Sues NN ieierekseta at anne Win. 
TBD Gis. ceddes ssc... ss dkeeneee We ccc KAU RMMER Sus sea clade raneeeestete ereeee ome M. & W. 
% DLICL oo cs scicceieddohnie ook UMMEMS osha» «ose eiMnRen’ ondary seed teve temas gee eneean rSherm. 
és SU DO VAR ciate a's on ca GUMS os « © oo co ReRine dass san bacare es Rane ane On nena Worthen. 
ce WOTDLYECOBB sade ss. 0's pea woos»  (smbRMIER #1 vic. bcc BeieU et saan Weer N. & P. 
« WHE] Ori ss j.co-) 2. .sceMeebo ens: .... GUEDERD RE Ui cbacc « Gok poems akan ae teaIran cn nea Swal. 
Genus-Trachydomia.. cis ca>.- ..cetneaeks «tices sasaueen ea teaaamienuaneerns M. & W. 
Trachydomia nNOdosuii :...... cctmmiseeess...-- GsRmBees ss +o sch psenneeW anda aeiel es same 3 
Family Pleurotomariide. 
Genus Plenrotomaria cee sents. - sap Mbes cnc odncnaeaeuktan sss cucemenee DeFrance. 
Pleurotomaria Donha@rborensismitances cs «.oncseabdben sa ces aceteealeuel cheska dock Cox. 
Deck with 1a na vigeeies «<2... ocean tenes «oc ccn ana Utwese umes toast McC. 
: CAT DOMATIO..: .cGUMEen ss c0ss's act Mkn Now ccleedeeeaienst eabenea aie aetna N.& P. 
‘i gravillensis ...dMech ».:.....cMAbes ss sagisseatbecachvta..o be eke cs 
INOMNAtA.:. ... . Ges sce... scans tolcwedhd bebe babe Rene ger anene ae Meek. 
- SUDSINMAEA ’ .: Sse cs... cutee) abe dene se ouk Venein nas ban M. & W. 
4 BPNETV ALS «. 5 geMMlign i's ence son ghiiblies ce ceutie deta iene de eLieeaaaae yy 


BUDCONStICtA “MeN te cs. +e ceeeeRahwelap ed es coRAee Rene Cree en ne eee Con. 


Paleontology of Peoria County. 25 


Genus Murchisonia....... Ge Wes MME Shs ctche! cohen a ea Lav a... Meee DOA &. V., 

NRE NEON 1, TROT ALE cee ches acc sce cp yes. cueecs socees Veen ede <chUS 20 -daEBaa sade VER CG Ns 
bs Wn M aA jhe cece See ee a RR 2. ee a © See lac a Swal. 
cf PGEV CTSA wadeecscencoesclee's-.. ame ASE SS IRE SER 5 RR oe. Beual ay 


Family lames 


-Genus Loxonema... OCC CC EOe see eeeees eeeeee eeeeee coereeee @ eesscece S cover eseeee evevceoce Phil. 
BPE OMIOING GLICO CLOTING: Hisee esc css ccc ccs Seebeck ese cocdubales oc cdee oes 1) aa Se re M.& W. 
ay RUPEE CI COREA orcs ie siide coe 00 Me's oo. ty EBs s deeteaieteenn ci of 


Genus Macrocheilus ........... I es Pee snhawes te sebe eteay al s VE 
MEM OCNCLIS TOW OCTYY1.. ciccac.s. >-.... seunMi pes ies-. osaeBignanericcocde cssebense'do oe hen tee eae Stev. 
Ae DELMOISENIUS yaceccs.-....- SER ves... «SGUPMb eats Bula cease ncscd, ene ume MUON). 


Genus Polyphemopsis..... ...... sscece seoee. seeee ich AND Chae G as edinat te etme can asa Post. 
Polyphemopsis CHEVSRIIS Catiewss s+. 00: eee _ NR eciaeets bel cscees M. & W. 
TLUGLOULLG,; cecdme tas... 00s MMMM c'ys+ se OEMs. sy eduivce ti gtana sored svar a 


zs PLAC UU air eae on. - 5.25 MEE» + «ik eeeabin ss op apdvnauoeites! Lerloeeaa tf 


Family Solaridae. 


rons CO philetariits...s..........40 SEs: s:. .. cues ves hoonde bd ouadecSes Vanuxem, 
Ophileta owenana........ ...000. a aa IEP n svcd sucdevnsevesstdeuedl M. & W. 


SPOTS PIAGYOSCO UIA race. .... 00 cece ore o0ss GPP cs tic rca avael eases bee Conrad. 
PRM RAEI DCOTIOLISG ttn. .2.....00 5; spate: 00 +cun py aade pans sel tecee ... McChesney. 


Genus Straparollus ............. scctees s0100e seeesecccres coreceeee sessssees soneeeers Mont. 
Straparollus carinatus ...... eS. oecas as 5 «os REMY Ty Sc eubeae ss ars Silber? Chap. 
subquadratus.............+. a eee ols gy ober M. & W. 

s SUT GOS R ea rekiss-.cccney. nots ) ae Baifovs tiftoales cheed alacesee ts 


CLASS CEPHALOPODA. 
Family Goniatitide. 


Genus Goniatites ........ ae ee «bcd, cs «Rees aes DeHaven. 
MIL IGOR IETLIINI US. \.css¢ccee csc cececccce wae ae WH sé cc cumea aac aurea ..-sherm., 


STIS IN ALLGLIUIS cans ceece cusses 000g QMMersoe cee cosnouge Oia suite aeece. cadet ech hasesavagt LOW s 
NEES oo cote 5 res, 5 ss ove SUMMED SS) ay > 00 ce Mabe loch oan | pas seimadedetesinias ee Cox. 
a hilandensis ........... Reet vasa ee Pe ei iat yantnne Load ae, Wor. 

= DIGDOVOLVIS 2. scam ance ics 5 Sesei . ae SOMEEE Ges ssjo0eners setade tus dvets Sherm. 

s occidentalis ......... 15 Bee es cis ox: ee cp Mp eaina 15 ig Swal. 


5 ESS TS a er, A A Re ae Dae Mont. 
AIBC, COTLGELISLUIS 1, cbc ce ds oc'cscc oo 000k MADRUD cos cccces ovanuhy Rion ceakhiely alsa fei teind s WLOG 


CFENUS 1 CINNOCHOCTIUS ..4-25.-000 .<cteeiee css ccscee poude _ ae a es Bee ra 8 McC. 
Temnocheilus latwm.....:.3)...005 be cdes 10 SWUM hcles os cnee Bsa ch ocr bageceevaces VLGOE We 


Family Orthoceratide. 


Orthoceras cribrosum....... DIMES co's vs se. sc 1) MO os” tea ee ag cdeadenst COOLID 
= DUBIIGTIGIS ec, LTC RRE se coc CEM hock co 00 e SEMMMMI cc ch esldeesseavicsdetebenseeD LOU: 


CLASS LAMELLIBRANCHIATA. 


ile Anatinide. 


Se A LIOLISIN Mirai. <2 aoCehe< o> SUMMER dessa -++ MMMMED ten ess xetede chcdetiene recipes KIN 
Allorisma ensiformis ............. ee 2 ae =. 5, SSR RIPEN lea att ss Swal. 
o e sinuata..... eeeeee ce eee ee eeeeeeeee seeseee seereee eee ee oe @eeee cere eeee*t ceases eeeeee core. Mtr 


26 Paleontology of Peoria County. 

Genitts Clinopistha iy.) 7..5satie.: ates. cth seens 040 spas ween (annD Ee M. & W. 
Clinopistha radiata... -... ogi. ssbess GMs beciee soQibevdetnistit ne setae cain. «sam ... Hall 
Family Arcide. 

Genus Macrodon. ...025...5 gaits... +s. iegaueeescavubeenesistayes seth... aims Lycette. 
Macrodon tennistriata. :,.i2pos. 2: Scum. cs. a cetmeb ony SeM UEC Le vevuele emis os Sian M 
Gents Solenomyas ::) ces... vaeus .....cienabercserpae ss sysyea kre neemniss ss cual Lemarch. 
solenomya anodontoides,. 1.2%... .:cdMMerss-«.. saskeeuseuetbbl son Sruake(aptmeetiie +> slam Meek. 
rs PALATE, Ficaiiin cu Sede ce'e CUM cla aoe conaeebivce te culcai ie Etta amma cam M. & W. 
Family Aviculide. 

Genus ENtOl amiss. oc... scvcelliee oo vaes ncaeleeibnd cde suas epee nual s bar CeNmEEnD pram Meek. 
FEGntolim AV ICU Arie ek ccc alee ces vee GaeeMyss'c cc oc GUSMEt Gs ss gaat alee maietys pear aieeeaann Tan Swal. 
Family Cardiamorphidie. 

Genus Cardiamorphia...-..cime..).....2 vese@huwe coseetaceneveey sass aa ogeasiie cee DeK. 
Cardiamorphiag) MissoUrICNSIS.;.:vomMe...... .cosblepebeessssncesus teperateen ens te + estapenss Sherm. 
Family Cyprinide. 

Genus Astarte 4.05550 62) .c2RBS a ee aRe ev dec ces, betwee pene ee ene cnaanens Sowb. 
Astarte mortonensis iisciesccc. cede s «> s+ «04d SGAMyhoe <c'dd code eaten cneaee een ae naaanE Gein. 
3 NEDIARCENSIB ,cecicess .c ce ceOeMMts «+ oc FEGRRRIRIEES vv oc ctte ghtauntekatnta a eenn st ynnamn—EEE ie 

Genus: Astartelle’s......2i sities. ...0c0 see Patetntn ce sas Ne geee peices ates ae ryan Hall. 
A-startella Vera ies; nc saleeaccls ces RAMEE o> 00 SitSESORISRINEERIGS o's 0 oul MERE TSSe REE uae ae 
Family Cytherodontide. 
CONUS SEDIZOM UB. ......5 cota nseenies «+s «cadens SV aEmnIN, 600. sahie waren nmin fed sd King. 
Schizodtis Guxrtg s.ccscbie ies ee ce Ges s oo sees a aL sh TERE cece sea Le eer M. & W.. 
¥ POSSICTIS 2y cece solves «00 cae UUMes > 00 0cbrilebieg ss es Redics <ektaer ROTC anes neenore ae Vera 
Family Mytilide. 

Genus Myalina.n..:'...:P.ceegegas... ..ccuieltbeseraesvoncle beauties atreurs cant anna Dek. 
Myalina‘angilate i: isa ics... ci caietiee -...2snaminniten «fs spy e sca aeeeen tt ae ene M. & W. 
. CONCENEVICA oles v/s. k l cemeieees. s. os beaMMRER Bons eos once coguseeeen teams ae Gea 
. melinaformis °...... :..<... (| SR SE eo Boh ae onab ne nee oe ce 
ts TECULVITOSULIS :.. ik 5055 CeaeMERES. <0 00 scenes es boc yeu cents eee a 
- SwallOvErce isso ccc Ue URE: v0.0 coca eeREE: (0 OUD erm CR aa eee a 

4 Su DQUaGFAtS 20.) ...'ick ese Meee s+ + 00 GsbPaatebes cose ee puanCereein ei aaneenE ans Sherm 
Family Nuculide. 

Genus, Nucula.. a5 33,0. SS os AR eae CA ee ee ee Lam. 

Nuculana bellistriatas 42... ...c2egemee. -- 00s 0iete Meet en oo yore econ encuentran eee Stevens. 

Genus Yoldia sci... Cass. .. 0s co RBnmein dete daen)Sasepeikc wes aie Rieter cL ammna Meek. 

Yoldia gibbosa i i.Fiscvecos celtics MMMMMEAs s+. coe epRMMeRC yy Al ans ce Cee wen ae McC. 
Family Pectinide. 

Genus -AViculopectin: 4.) sees......2 s Mmnthe ony eieceeny ek vest scien Cree McOoy. 

A vicnlopectin. COXANUS): /.. ccs. sco-ve COMAPI so obk 2 sWatishabedaisticienc etereee M. & W. 

3 IN terlines tus kee iss: ee i eee * 

a GOPDOTDATIS oie sd... csclcceetbtbe cs sas eueae neeo de nara sy Cox 

Genus Streblopeeria | ipo epee cs «se. 0 ace dblerensec da <s saulie ns Sos cee pe Leese: nea McC. 

Streblopteria tenuilin eats :i, ciagmeee... ... -.. Laeeipces es cobee cieeeeee oe ae M. & W. 


Family Pinnide. 
Aen is Pima oi soles cle MMM 5s lye ip ROE cle nae ane ee oe ... Linneeus. 
Pinna nettaruch ideas :..5.: 0). emae ss... di emgueeerae ey glenn Perley Weeetae ht ae 
SC MPOOTACULA  Ritewes tinct due woliateds Sunabooss Stage eaen Mat kumas tesco eeneanne 


Paleontology of Peoria County. 


Sus-Kinegpom ARTICULATA. 


CLASS CRUSTCEA. 


BRON US i PSt Assi ot ots gees.» aieeores's.. cheats 
MOET URESSISL TYLANIE ose y osc wns cpl dn sc-s SMM ake 0 
= SANGAMONENSIS «........ ..e cee cee ese ee 
4, BCHALIA ...c4s000 


Sus-KInGpoM VERTEBRATA. 
CLASS PISCES, 
ORDER GANOIDEA. 


27 


et T es LONE. 


ee cee ohe 
EE St 


Ce its LDC ODISCUS samen, oss ..0 Ec so DURUM ie ce cudec css cecena's 


Paleoniscus peltigerus............ 


ORDER SELACCHII. 


MVCN GAIAM OC US ttre sess. 0. ERM o's. 4 Lense dest ageeuee tate 
MORI TA TTITL OL OS cpa re soy. 5. ... cc MMs 0. Jonge OWe ioctl eetateticccat seadahe ccd 
MCA NLA VEL ELV BUPVIC ee ola ses... MMOs. SUBD eldea deel s'ssQues vee eee's 
MPPETULA OACICONTAL A itiyises lads ;. ...- 0s SOMMER Okc» «0. dae GRU SS aculpas 


rm. 


W.. 


FLORA OF PEORIA. 





READ BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER 10, 1886, 
BY DR. J. T. STEWART, EX-PRESIDENT. 





When we look abroad upon the landscape which surrounds us and see the 
endless variety, the multitudinous forms of vegetable life growing and unfold- 
ing before us, it seems like a hopeless task to bring order out of the apparent 
confusion, to classify and name all these forms; yet it can be done—it is 
done. Every leaf of the forest may be so described that another botanist 
can draw it accurately and usually give it its proper place. There is more 
order in nature than appears on the surface. It only requires systematic 
study to learn her ways, to unravel her complications and reveal her secrets. 
Life in all its forms of manifestation, from the simple vegetable cell to the 
complex human organization, is essentially the same, is governed by the same 
laws. The study ofa flora involves the study of these laws. Not only the 
principles of classification which are essential, as without a knowledge of them 
no considerable progress could be made, but the whole range of laws which 
govern life in all its forms. I say this so you may realize that the view I 
shall give to-night of our flora is but a superficial one, only a bird’s eye view 
as it were of a great subject, a subject which to grasp its breadth and depth 
and learn its full meaning requires years of study. It matters not what de- 
partment of the field of nature we enter our lives are too short to exhaust it. 
The more of its mysteries we are able to solve, the more we find yet unsolved. 
This is the experience of every man who has attempted to read and translate 
the book of nature,— to fathom the mysteries of the living world. 

The richness and variety of the flora of all countries and sections of coun- 
tries depend upon the soil and climate. If the soil is rich and varied and the 
seasons warm, with an abundance of rain, the flora is rich both in species and 
individuals. These conditions obtain in a high degree in this vicinity. 

In an early day our flora was one of extraordinary richness. But like all 
other thickly settled countries the indigenous flora has suffered from the en- 
croachment of civilization. 

The greater part of the city is built on a slightly undulating plateau of 
sandy loam with the lake and river on one side and a range of hills on the 
other. From the extreme upper to the lower end of this plateau is about six 
miles. At the upper end it is about one-fourth of a mile in width and gradu- 
ally widens to about a mile and a half at the lower end. Back of this range 
of hills or bluff as we call it, the land is high and rolling, a portion of it 
prairie loam, but most of it light timber with a clayey soil. Some 
high gravely knolls and deep ravines are also found here. Below we strike 
Kickapoo Creek with high, rocky hills and deep glens. On the south and 
southwest we have the river which opposite the middle of the city and for 
eighteen miles above it expands into a lake ranging from three quarters of a 
mile to a mile wide. Beyond this lake there is a bottom a portion of which over- 
flows. In this bottom are marshes and bogs and clear springs bursting out of the 


Flora of Peoria. 29 


hills beyond. There is an abundance of water in these springs to supply a 
city of five hundred thousand. Some of these springs spread out and flow a 
few inches deep over a large surface of clean, white sand. Here is the home 
of the Nasturtium officinale which has been introduced and now covers sev- 
eral acres. Beyond this bottom as above intimated is a range of hills origin- 
ally covered with timber, and in many places broken into deep ravines and 
interspersed with little shady valleys. | 

With such a topography the flora could not be otherwise than varied and 
and rich. In fact, almost every species of plants which grow in middle Illi- 
nois and some others have been found within five miles of our court house. 

While we have many species of trees, except on the borders of the river, 
the prevailing ones are the Quercus, of which there are nine species, namely, 
the Quercus rubra, coccinia, alba, macrocurpa, imbricaria prinoides, Q. bicolor, 
Q. nigra and one Leana. Gray says the Quercus Leana is probably a hybrid 
between Q. imbricaria and Q. tinctoria or possibly Q. nigra. But that cannot 
be true in this case, as there are no trees of the Q. tinctoria or Q. nigra in this 
vicinity. It may bea hybrid between the Q. imbricaria and Q. coccinea, 
which are plentiful in the vicinity where it grows. 

The Acer saccharinum on the high land and the Acer dasycarpum on the 
bottoms are very common. The Acer rubrum is not found here. The 
Negundo aceroides flourishes on the bottoms. The Carya olivoformis, alba 
sulcata, tomentosa, microcarpa (?), and amara are found here, though none of 
them are very abundant. The Juglans nigra and cinerea are common. The 
Tilia Americana iscommon. The Sassafras officinale, the only representative 
of the laurel family, is also common. The Ulmus fulva and Americana are 
* not rare. The Platanus occidentalis grows to great size on the borders of the 
river. The predominating trees of the river banks and bottoms here, as on 
most of the western rivers are the Populus monilifere and various species of 
Salix. Of the later we have the S. candida, S. humulis, S. discolor, 8. serica, 
S. petiolaris, S. cordata var. angustata, 8. nigra, 8. longifolia. 

The Populus tremuloides and P. grandidentata are found in large clumps 
or little groves on higher but moist ground. 

The Celtis occidentalis is common and has proved to be the best shade tree 
for our city. The Morus rubra is seen occasionally, but is rather rare. The 
Prunus serotina is rather rare. The Fraxinus Americana, F. pubescens, F. 
viridis, F. sambucifolia and quadrangulata are common forest trees. 

The Gleditchia triacanthos and Gymnocladus canadensis are found here as 
elsewhere solitary and alone, rarely, if ever, in clusters or groves. The Aescu- 
lus glabra is not rare in the bottom lands. Of evergreen trees there is but one 
representative, the Juniperus Virginiana, and it is rare. 

Of smaller trees and shrubs there are many, among which may be named the 
Carpinus Americana, Ostrya Virginica, Hamamelis Virginica, rare, Corylus 
Americana, very common, Asimina triloba, Rhus glabra and aromatica, Rham- 
nus lanceolatus and alnifolius, Enonymus atroperpureus, Amorpha fruticosa, 
Cercis canadensis, Prunus Americana, Cratcegus coccinea, tomentosa (three 
varieties), Crus-galli, Pyrus coronaria, Amalanchier Canadensis, Cornus 
sericea, stolonifera, asperifolia, paniculata and alternifolia, Viburnum pruni- 
folium and lentago. The latter is much the more common. Cephalanthus 
occidentalis, Zanthroxylum Americanum, Diospyros Virginiana in a few piaces 
on the river, but only as a small tree, Ptelia trifolia, and Staphylea trifolia. 

Of indigenous vines the chief ones are the following: Clematis Virginiana 
and Pitcheri, Meuispermum canadense, Rhus toxicodendron, Vitis aestivalis 
cordifolius and riparia, Ampeleopsis quinquefolia, Celastrus scandeus, Apios 
tuberosa, Amphicarpzea monoica, Sicyos angulatus, Echinocystis lobata, Teco- 
ma radicans, Ipomcea lacunosa and pandurata, Calystegia sepium, Cuscuta 
gronovii compacta and glomarata, Humulus lupulus, Polygonum cilinode and 
dumetorum, Dioscorea villosa, Smilax hispida and herbacia. 


30 Flora of Peoria. 


There is no Betula, Fagus or Castanea. 

There is more leaf surface, more wood, but much less timber than there 
was fifty years ago. This is easily accounted for; then the fires kept down 
the young growth which sprang up thickly and grew rapidly as soon as they 
were prevented. The great oaks and walnuts, those grand old monarchs of 
the forest, which were common in early days, together with most of the other 
valuable timbers, have been cut away and used for building and other pur- 
poses. Many times have I seen white oak and walnut trees four feet in diam- 
eter, thirty and forty feet to a limb and straight as an arrow, but they have all 
disappeared. 

The composite is here as in other parts of the United States the most nu- 
merous of the herbacea, there being thirty-four genera, thirty of which are 
indigenous and four introduced; and one hundred and thirty-seven species, 
one hundred and twenty-seven indigenous and ten introduced. The Asters 
and Solidagos are the most numerous, there being twenty-one species of Asters 
and eighteen of Solidagos. This is a paradise for these genera. In the fall 
the borders of the woods are blue with asters and the prairies yellow with 
Golden Rods. The Helianthus and Silphium are abundant. In late summer 
and early autumn they are a very conspicuous part of our flora. There are 
ten indigenous species of the former and four of the latter. The Rudbeckia, 
Lepachys, Actinomeris, Coreopsis, Helenium and Bidens are quite abundant 
and add much to the golden hue of the autumn landscape. The Antennaria 
plantaginifolia is the first composite to flower in the spring and whitens many 
of our hills. While it is yet in flower the Erigeron bellidifolium mingles with 
it and extends to lower and more moist ground with a tinge of bluish purple 
in its flowers. A little later the E. Philidelphicum, E. annuum and HE. stri- 
gosum opens out, the two former white, flesh-color or shaded with purple, the 
latter pure white. These are abundant in copses and open places. The 
Eupatoriums are among ths most common and conspicuous of the composite 
order. We have the E. purpurium, E. altissimum, E. sessilifolium, E. perfolia- 
tum, E. serotinum and E. ageratoides. The E. purpurium grows on moist 
ground, but there is a smaller variety of it found in our swamps with rich 
purple flowers quite showy and handsome. The E. perfoliatum, or boneset, is 
abundant in places. The E. serotinum covers much of our bottom land, and 
the beautiful white E. ageratoides is abundant in the copses, especially on the 
north hillsides. The Cacalia, though rather rare, has four representatives:— 
C. suaveolens, C. reniformis, C, atriplicifolia and C. tuberosa. 

The Leguminosz order is represented by twenty genera, eighteen indigenous 
and two introduced, wlth forty species, thirty-six of which are indigenous and 
four introduced. 

The Rosace order eleven genera and twenty-one species, all indigenous. 

The Ranunculace order eleven genera and twenty-two species, all indigenous. 

The Cruciferze order eleven genera and seventeen species, twelve indigenous 
and five introduced. 

The Umbelliferze twelve genera and eighteen species, seventeen indigenous 
and one introduced. 

The Scrofulareacze fourteen genera, twenty-two species, nineteen indigenous 
and three introduced. 

The Labeatee fifteen genera, thirteen indigenous and two introduced; twen- 
ty-four species, twenty-one indigenous and three introduced. 

The Orchidace has genera and sixteen species, all indigenous. 

There are ten genera and seventy-seven species of Cyperace, all indigenous. 

The number of genera of Graminez in this vicinity is thirty-six, of species 
eighty, sixty-nine of which are indigenous and eleven introduced. 

These are the most numerous orders in our flora, but besides these there are 
seventy-six orders embracing one hundred and fifty-eight genera and three 
hundred and nine species, making in all about eight hundred species (788). 





Flora of Peoria. 31 


One of the peculiarities of our flora is the almost entire absence of the 
Conifers and Ericacez, there being but one species of the former, and it rare, 
and but three of the latter; the little, insignificent Monitropa uniflora, rare, 
the Vaccinnium vacillans found in but one circumscribed place and the 
Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi found in but one other place. 

The Euphorbiaccez is represented by two genera, one species of Acalypha, 
the A. Virginica common; and eight species of Euphorbia, viz; E. humistrata, 
rare, E. maculata, very common, E. hyperisifolia, common, E. dentata, com- 
mon, E. heterophylla, not rare, E. corollata, very common, E. obtusata, rare, 
and E. commutata, rare. There are two marked varieties of E. dentata, the 
typical form growing on rich ground, aid a low widely branching variety 
growing on dry gravely knolls with the lower branches as long or longer than 
the upright stem, leaves slender pointed, the whole aspect differing greatly 
from the typical form. No essential differences appearing between the two 
forms I planted the seeds of each side by side on moist rich soil, and when 
they grew could not tell the one from the other, the variety developed into 
the typical form. 

The Chenopodiums and Amarantus are abundant. They are all supposed 
to have been introduced. As rats follow civilization so do these homely 
weeds. As rats multiply and grow fat in the midst of plenty, so in this rich: 
soil these weeds grow rank and abundant. 

The Polygonacez order is represented by two genera, the Polygonum and the 
Rumex. There are eleven indigenous species of Polygonum, viz: P. amphibi- 
um, P. incarnatum, P. Pennsylvanicum, P. acre, P. hydropiperoides, P. avicu- 
lare, P. ramosissimum, P. Virginicum, P. sagitatum, P. tenue and P. dumeto- 
rum, and three introduced, P. persicaria, P. hydropiper and P. convulvulus. 
There are three indigenous species of Rumex: R. verticilatus, R. Britannica 
and R. hydrolapathum, and four introduced, R. obtusifolius, R. crispus, R. 
sanguineus and R. acetosella. 

Of the Scrofulariaceze orders we have indigenous the Scrofularia nodosa, 
Chelona glabra, Penstemon pubescens, Mimules ringens and M. Jamesii, Con- 
obia multifiida, Gratiola Virginiana, Ilysanthes gratioloides, Veronica Virgin- 
ica, V. anagallis, V. scutellata, Gerardia grandiflora, G. purpurea, G. tenui- 
folia and G. auriculata, Castillecia coccinea and Pedicularis Canadensis and P. 
lanceolata. Introduced Verbascum thapsus and V. blattaria, and Linaria 
vulgaris, Veronica arvensis. 

The Verbenacez is represented by the Verbena hastata, V. urticifolia, V. 
stricta, V. bracteosa, and a hybrid between the V. stricta and V. bracteosa, 
the Lippia lanceolata and Phryma leptostachya. 

The Borigenacz is rather a conspicuous order and is represented by the 
following indigenous species: Onosmodium molle, Lithospermum latifolium, 
L. hirtum, L. canescens and L. angustifolium, Mertensia Virginica, abundant, 
and Cynoglossum Morisoni. Introduced, Echium vulgare (?), Echino-spermum 
lapula and Cynoglossum officinale. 

The Asclepidacie order, is also worthy of notice. It is represented by the 
Asclepias cornuti, A. Sullivantii, A. phytolacoides, A. purpurascens, A. quad- 
rifolia, A. obtusifolia, A. Meadii, A. incarnata, A. tuberosa and A. verticillata 
Acerates viridiflora and A. longifolia. 

The Liliaceze is reasonably well represented. The Polygonatum biflorum 
and P. gigantium are common in our woods. The Smilacinia racemosa is also 
common. The S. stellata is found but is rare. The Scilla Fraseri formerly 
common is now rare. The Allium tricoccum and A. Canadensis are not rare. 
The Lilium Philidelphicum was formerly common on the prairies but is now 
rare. The L. superbum was formerly common in low, rich ground in the 
border of the woods, but is now almost extinct. 

The Nymphe tuberosa is common on the borders of the lake and in the 


32 Flora of Peoria. 


sloughs on the other side. But the crowning glory of our flora is the Nelum- 
brium luteum. It is one of the grandest plants in North America. And this 
seems to be its chief centre. Acres and acres of lake surface are covered with 
its rich, green, orbicular leaves, which measure from one to three feet in diam- 
eter, the flower stems rising two and three feet above them. When in bloom 
they fill the air with fragrance and present a picture more gorgeous than any 
thing which can be found outside of the tropics and one which is rarely 
equaled within them. So far as I can learn it is nearly allied to, if not 
identical with the famous Lotus of Egypt. 

The changes which have been wrought in our flora by civilization during 
the last fifty years have been great. The number of species which have been 
introduced are, perhaps, a little greater than the number of those which have 
become extinct, so that in species there is a slight gain, but in individual 
plants the loss is very great, especially in the grasses and cyperaceze. The cul- 
tivating of the fields, the draining of the sloughs and swamps have destroyed 
the grass and cyperaceze by the wholesale. Representatives of the species 
remain, but they are insignificent as to numbers., Many other plants are 
reduced the same way and some have disappeared. 

The beautiful Cypripedium spectabile which was formerly common is now 
quite rare and will soon be gone forever. So with the C. candidum and even 
the C. pubescens is becoming rare. Twenty years ago there were bogs on the 
other side of the lake containing many acres of ground, which were blue with 
Lobelia Kalmii. These bogs have since been drained and are now cultivated 
fields, and it is difficult if not impossible to find a specimen of Lobelia Kalmii 
in this vicinity. The Salix tristis grew in swamps near this place. It has 
disappeared from the same cause. The same may be said of the Memyanthes 
trifoliata and the Polygonum sagitatum. The beautiful Spirea lobata which 
was so abundant in the same vicinity is no more. 

In 1852 Dr. Fred. Brendel found a single stalk of Tephrosia Virginiana on 
ground which*is now built over by the city. Mr. Charles Balance told him 
that ata still earlier period it was plenty in the same vicinity, but it has never 
since been seen. Dr. Brendel found the same year a single plant of Crotolaria 
sagittalis on the border of the lake where now the pottery stands. It has not 
been found since. In one place across the lake Dr. Brendel found the Flerkea 
proserpinacoides. That ground is now cultivated and it has disappeared. He 
also found across the river the Utricularia intermedia, the Eriophorum gracile 
and the Muhlenbergia glomerata and a few miles below the city the Sperma- 
coce glabra. They are no longer found. 

Of the following only single specimens were found years ago, none since. 
Nasturtium sinuatum, Eloda Virginica, Desmodium panciflorum, Vicia Amer- — 
icana, Phaseolus helvolus, Cornus circinata, Ambrosia bidentata, Gnaphalium 
purpureum, Salix tristis, Habenaria hyperborea, Aplectrum hyemale, Carix 
Richardsonii, Osmunda regalis and Struthiopteris Germanica. 

Many years ago I saw in a prairie not far from here quite a piece of ground 
covered with Sabbatia angularis, but have not been able to find any of it for 
the last thirty years. The Polygalla incarnata was not uncommon thirty years 
ago, but I think it has disappeared. ‘The Dirca palustris formerly grew on the 
other side of the lake but is now gone. Twenty years ago I found one stalk 
of Eupharbia obtusata but have never found another one. 

Why in so many cases a single specimen of a species has been found and no 
others is difficult to tell. It may have been the first from a seed which was 
conveyed by some means from abroad; or it may have been the last of a 
species which from some unknown cause was giving out. Where a plant re- 
quires certain conditions and can only grow where those conditions exist, as 
the Lobelia Kalmii, which only grows in bogs; when these bogs are drained 
and dried it ceases to-grow, or where a species is confined to a limited area and 


Flora of Peoria. 38 


and this area is plowed and cultivated, or where the land has been closely pas- 
tured, it is plain. But where a species is adapted to a large section or coun- 
try and none of these conditions exist, why it should fail to grow, or if it has 
grown there and run out, I cannot explain. 

There is no locality in which everything grows which is capable of growing 
for the reason that everything has not been introduced. This is especially 
true of islands in the midst of the ocean. Islands far from the main land, 
while they may be rank with vegetation, are usually barren of species. The 
same is true of the Fauna of these islands for the same reason— they have not 
been introduced. Along Kickapoo Creek a few miles below the city there is 
much ground adapted to the hardy species of Ericacez, yet there are but two 
species found there and they are limited to two little spots which both together 
do not exceed one acre. Probably these have been there but a short time and 
no others have been introduced at all. 

The figures given above of the number of species must be taken as proxi- 
mate not absolute. The exact number of species in any locality can never be 
given, for the reason that classification is more or less arbitrary and no two 
botanists will ever agree exactly. 

The distinction between genera are not always clearly marked, and between 
species are less so, and between species and varieties the line of demarcation is 
often very indistinct. Take for example our asters; there are at least half a 
dozen of species according to otir present classification, of which characteristic 
specimens of each may be obtained, yet they run into each other interminably, 
so much so that more specimens are found which cannot be placed in any one 
of them tuan there are which can be. The fact is they are probably all one 
polymorphus species. This can only be determined by planting them all on 
the same ground and watching their development. 

Twenty years ago Prof. Gray told me, if he could get the time and muster 
the courage he would revise the asters. He has not done it, and no man can 
do it successfully until what I have indicated has been done. And what I say 
of the asters is equally true of many other genera. 

The only way to get an accurate knowledge of the flora of the world is for 
local botanists to work up the flora of every section of it. This of course can- 
not be done for many centuries, but by systematic effort the flora of the United 
States may be placed in an advanced stage in the course of fifty or an hundred 

ears. 
z Dr. Brendel and myself have been working this field the last thirty years, 
and latterly Miss Heading has worked a part of it. We do not claim to have 
done very much, but we have in our way, contributed our mite to the ad- 
vancement of the science of botany. 


THE CLIMATE OF PEORIA. 


. 


READ BEFORE THE PEORIA SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, SEPTEMBER 24th, 1886,. 
BY FRED. BRENDEL, M.D., EX-PRESIDENT. 





This abstract of meteorological observations is taken from three daily nota- 
tions during 380 years from December Ist, 1855, to November 30th, 1885. The 
observations were made at 7 A.M., 2 P.M. and 9 P.M, with a Green’s cistern bar- 
ometer and a number of centrigrade thermometers made entirely of glass and 
suspended free in a shady place. It is the temperature of the atmosphere that 
should be measured, and not that of a wall, which being colder or hotter than 
the free air, influences the stand of the mercury by radiation. The maximum 
and minimum was noted every day, and the daily mean is calculated after the 
method adopted by the signal office from the sum of the three observations, 
that of 9 p.m. doubled and the whole divided by four. That gives about the 
true mean in the three winter months, when the minimum does occur at the 
time of the first and the maximum at the time of the second observation, but 
not in the other nine months, particularly in summer, when the minimum 
right before sunrise is left out of the calculation. It would be better to take 
the maximum and minimum and two hours of equal distance, 7. e., 9 A.M. and 
9p.M. The degrees are converted into the old-fashioned Fahrenheit, to which 
the English conservatism is clinging so pertinaciously in spite of the better 
centesimal system, adopted by the rest of the civilized world, based on the 
freezing point of water, a body that does play the most important part in the 
economy of nature. 

The rain and melted snow was measured by a rain-gauge, consisting of a 
funnel and a corresponding graduated glass cylinder, each degree answering 
the hundredth part of an inch. The force of wind was not measured but 
estimated, and so cloudiness. The humidity of the atmosphere and the pres- 
sure of vapor is taken from the difference of the dry and wet bulb thermome- 
ter after the tables of Guyot. The place of observations changed during the 
30 years several times but only within a thousand feet of horizontal distance 
and thirty feet of elevation. 


TEMPERATURE. 


The mean temperature of the year is 52 degrees of Fahrenheit. It is higher 
than on other stations of Illinois of the same latitude, which is readily ex- 
plained by the lower elevation above the sea-level, being only 490 feet at the 
present place of observation, and in the midst of a large city. Even the little 
difference in elevation of the scarcely more than a hundred feet higher bluffs 
would show a several degrees lower temperature, as that part of the city is more 
exposed to the winds, particularly the northwest and west, which are the 
coldest. ‘ge 

The range between maximum and minimum is great, and the change of 


The Climate of Peoria. 35 


temperature is often very rapid. The highest temperature observed durin 
the whole period of observations was 105 on the 3lst of August, 1878, the 
lowest —27 on the 5th of January, 1884, a difference of 1382 degrees. The great- 
est range in one month (January 1874) was 87 degrees between 65 and 
—22, and the greatest range in 24 hours was observed in January, 1876, when 
the mercury went down 61 (28th, 2 P.M.) to 8 (29th, 7 A.M.)=53 degrees, and 
the same range was observed 1881 in January, when the temperatare fell from 
34 (13th, 2 P.M.) to —19 (14th, 7 A.m.). Such daily oscillations are frequent, 
particularly in December, February and April, and even in July the greatest 
difference in 24 hours was 87 degrees. 
The lowest daily mean temperature of the period in question 20.7 (on the 
8th of January), the highest 80.4 (16th of July. 
» Following the daily march of mean temperature, we commence with the 
Ist of December (the first day of the meteorological year) with a mean of 34. 
It keeps below freezing point from the 7th of December to the 24th of Febru- 
ary (with the exception of two days, the 12th of December with 32.8 and 22d 
of February with 32.3); then it rises gradually (with exception of the 4th 
of March with 30.7) during the month of March, keeps above 40 from the 
26th of March, above 50 from the 17th of April, above 60 from the 7th of May, 
above 70 from the 5th of June and reaches the maximum on the 16th of July; 
then descending gradually to 70 on the 8th of September, to 60 on the 7th of 
October, to 50 on the 25th of October, to 40 on the 16th of November, and to 
freezing point on the 29th and 30th of November. ‘That rising and falling of 
mean temperature is not quite continuous from day to day, but often oscillat- 
ing, particularly in winter and summer; but taking periods of 10 days 
(decades) dividing each month in approximately three equal parts we find 
rise and fall continuous from the first decade in January—22.6 to 2d decade in 
July=78.3 and descending again to January in the following way: 


ist decade. : 2d decade. 3d decade. Month. 
PADLUALY: vis ove ROW, Ce ifain ses és - es ae LOB diese tered teas 24.5 
DEW BEV ras ce voc) SOE) ase aca op oo eee ae sige ss SAGe orescence dh ya 29.2 
VAG ho 28. 2. Gimme tesss.. oad BE. os ce es AT Sess. or. cites 88.1 
Lg gt Ba Ee YE AS 2 ee RP Os ae BD atss ra ksiws ed 51.7 
WEN Bod ata oe ne re EDS 3... occuaeieeee CT ao cde 63.8 
BRO oes osu cei eee (U2. eS Se . . cba cde nee One ae aden eh aRe 73.38 
Ss Dy eae eee 8 Oat 1 A ee TES}. .« cceaeenens OAs abs srk dia da aes Atal 
PSUS Uiexgeuee dives (Caietigedesesssceee MeO... .edeaueens DOien coaatatdena eats 75.2 
September ...... (be Se Ga, ... bce Gas Naseectcr hay! 66.7 
OGLODEY..t.cc0si+e a te, RS ee A Oo BR d ie tcwuds oh ss 53.7 
NPM IL GL (¢55 sc ti FO a eebinele +. eats eye Oo ie uid danteaae ewe 39.4 
PISCOM DEL sues. O21 De tase dre cece occs BOs. 55. scenes Ub cree so ne Bo, 28.6 


% 


That the maximum and minimum does not coincide with the summer and 
winter solstices is explained by the accumulation of heat during the summer 
months and in the negative during the winter months. 

Comparing the result of 30 years with the march of temperature of a 
single year, we find the latter much more irregular. In 1858 after a very mild 
January followed a severe February, and the first decade of March was colder . 
than the first decade of January. In 1869 the first decade of February was 
the coldest of that winter and March colder than January. 

The mean temperature of Peoria is about the same as that of Paris in 
France under 48° 5U’ N.L., that is 8 degrees farther north than Peoria. We 
find for spring and fall about the same temperature in both localities, but a 
great difference for summer and winter. 


36 The Climate of Peoria. 


Winter Spring. Summer Fall 

FeOria son... > dom Di Ak Ge cksdaesveun. DED. Bees. ccocbavee ddd, stands. Been 58.2 
Paris: >zc8s. ce B8.0i68..: sacs Panes HOS Sie csesten os 64.6 Shey... cae 52.5 
Difference ... 8.9 0.7 10.9 + 0.7 


Rome, in Italy, about one degree farther north than Peoria has a mean tem- 
perature of 60.8, in summer 74.3 in winter 50. That makes the mean temper- 
ature of Rome about 9 degrees and in winter 22.6 degrees warmer than at 
Peoria, and the summer is nearly one degree cooler. These examples may be 
sufficient to show the difference of the climate of western Europe and that of 
the central part of North America. 


WINTER. 


The three winter months together had the lowest mean 20.7 in the winters 
from 1872 to 1878, and 1874 to 1875. Above freezing point was the mean of 
the winters 1862-68, 1875-76, 1877-78, and 1879-80; in all the rest it was be- 
low freezing point. The coldest January was that of 1857 (13.5), the coldest 
February 1875 (15.5), the coldest December 1876 (18.5). The warmest Jan- 
uary was in 1880 (40.9), the warmest February 1878 (37.5), the warmest De- 
cember 1877 (44.3). The coldest decade in Jamuary was 1864, 1st-10th (0.2) 
in February 1875, 11th-20th (8) and in December 1872, 21st-31st, (8.8). The 
warmest decade in January was in 1864, 21st—31st, (41.8), in February 1871, 
2ist-28th, (41.2), in December 1862, 21st-31st, (41.7). 

When we call the three months December, January and February the three 
wintermonths, it is obvious that this is mere theory, Practically winter is 
not restricted to those three months; there are no general limits which are 
good for every year. When we take freezing as a distinctive quality of win- 
ter we find its limits very variable in different years. The mercury is falling 
below freezing point in a period commencing on the 1st of October and end- 
ing on the 11th of May, so that the first frost days in the thirty years occurred 
between the Ist of October and the 12th of November, the last between the 
25th of March and 11th of May. The longest of those periods was that in the 
winter from 1856 to 1857; the first frost was noticed on the Ist of October and 
the last on the 11th of May, a period of 223 days; the shortest was that from 
the 3d of November 1877, to the 25th of March 1878, a period of 148 days. 
The former contained 142, the latter only 51 frost days. Computing the aver- 
ages we find the first frost day to be the 17th of October,. for the last frost day 
the 17th of April, a period of 138 days with 112 frost days and 48 days with 
a mean temperature not rising above freezing point. 


SPRING. 


The mean temperature of the three spring months together is 50.2. The 
lowest mean was observed in 1857, —43, the highest in 1878 =56.6. The 
coolest March was in 1867 —29.5; the coolest April in 1857 =89.9; the cool- 
est May 1867 —55; the warmest March 1878 —50.5; the warmest April 1878 
' =57.9; the warmest May 1881 =71.4. The mean temperature of the decades 
are in March, Ist =385; 2d —37; 3d —41.8, The lowest was the first in 1857 
22.3; the highest the first in 1878 =52.5; in April the lst 47.8; 2d 51.7; 
3d 55.5. The lowest the Ist in.1881 =32.7; the highest the 3d in 1879 =66.2; 
in May the first =59.9, the 2d —63.3, the 3d 67.9; the lowest the 1st in 
1867 =51.1; the highest the 8d in 1881 =—77. The highest mean temperature 
of a single day of March was in 1875 on the 30th =65.6; of April in 1872 on the 
29th =77; of May in 1860 on the 24th =85.1; the lowest of March in 1867 on 
the 13th =4.7; of April in 1857 on the 6th =13.7; of May in 1875 on the Ist 


The Climate of Peoria. 37 


=39.5. The highest stand of the thermometer was observed in March 1860 on 
the 30th =79; in April 1856 on the 26th =88.5; in May 1860 on the 24th =98.5; 
the lowest in March 1867 on the 14th —6; in April 1857 on the 15th =18; in 
May 1867 on the 8th =30. 

There are in average 18 frost days in March, 5 in April, and in May 5 were 
were observed in 30 years. The most frost days had the March in 1859 =29, 
and April in 1857 =18, There was no frost day observed in April 1878; only 
13 per cent. of the frost days of April occurred after the 17th, at which date 
for the last time a mean temperature below freezing point was observed. 


SUMMER. 


The mean temperature of the three summer months is 75.5. The coolest 
summer was in 1866 and 1869 =73; the warmest in 1874 =79. The coolest 
June in 1869 =69; the coolest July 1865 —71; the coolest August 1866 =70; 
the warmest June in 1873 =79; the warmest July 1868 =82.7; the warmest 
August 1881 =80.5. The mean temperature of the decades was, of June, 1st 
decade =70, 2d =73, 3d =77; of July lst =77.9, 2d =78.3, 8d =77.2; of August 
Ist =77, 2d =756, 3d =73.3. The coolest decade of June was the ist of 1863 
=63, of July the 2d in 1865 =65.3, of August the 3d in 1863 =—65.3; the warm- 
est in June the 3d in 1858 =85, in July the 2d in 1878 =89.8, in August the 
1st in 1861 =86.7. 

Of the single observations was the highest for June on the 24th, in 1856 
=100; for July on the 15th, 1859, on the 4th, 1874, and on the 30th, 1885=104; 
for August on the 31st in 1873 =105; the lowest for June on the 4th, 1859, 
=35; for July on the 2d in 1861 and the 16th in 1863 =50; for August on the 


~ 29th in 1863 =41. 


FALL. 


The mean temperature of the three fall months is 53.3. The coolest fall was 
in 1880 =48.9; the warmest in 1884 =658.1; the coolest September was in 1866 
=60.5; the warmest in 1865 =73.1; the coolest October in 1869 =48.2; the 
warmest in 1879 =62.7; the coolest November in 1880 =30,3; the warmest in 
1867 =44.4. The mean temperature of the decades are the following for Sep- 
tember: lst =70.8, 2d =66°4, 3d =63; for October 1st =59.7, 2d =53.5, 3d 
=48.5; for November Ist =45.5, 2d =38.8, 3d =33.9. The coolest decade in 
September was the 3d in 1856 =—52.7; the warmest the lst in 1884 =81.3; 
the coolest in October the 3d in 1869 =36.3; the warmest the lst in 1879=76.3; 
the coolest in November the 3d in 1880 =20.3; the warmest the lst in 1874 
=64.5. The highest stand of the thermometer was observed on the 3d of Sep- 
tember 1864, and 5th of September 1881 —98, on the 3d of October 1856, 12th 
of October 1879 and 8th of October 1884 =—90; on the 7th of November 1874 
=77; the lowest on the 29th of September 1871 =384; on the 24th of October 
1869 =14; and 23d of November 1857,=—1.5. 

By comparison of the temperature of different places in Illinois during the 
meteorological year December 1869 to November 1870 we find in the mean 
temperatures of Peoria, Springfield, which is nearly a degree farther south, 
and Ottawa which is more than half a degree farther north, scarcely any differ- 
ence, but Galesburg, farther west and on a higher elevation, had that same year 
a mean of one degree lower and a January very much colder. Of the same 
year the temperatures of Steubenville, O., Fort Madison on the Mississippi 
and Nebraska City on the Missouri, all nearly in the same latitude with 
Peoria, compared show the following figures: 


Mean of the year. In winter. In summer. 
Steubenville .............. DAD... coum. 00+ cake Oh easy 03 hth ss sos ae 75.2 
GONE Tih edoe ss <a astra cass Cy ea REPAY ccs tet: «Ss caen tak 76.6 
Ft. Madison .....+..Jsc000s DB.O «cgeeeha ss... oda BENDS th’ e'daen's snisaviwenee? 76.6 


Nebraska City ........... Ny eee BM Oita ib sds ¥e aR, oes 74.8 


38 The Climate of Peoria. 


The means of the year are decreasing from east to west in the same way; 
lower the temperatures of the winter, but the summer is the hottest on the 
Mississippi and on the Illinois, well considered that Steubenville and Nebraska 
City are on a greater elevation above the sea-level and that the climate of 
Steubenville is influenced by the canadian lakes. 

By a mean period of frost of 183 days for the season free of frost, 182 days 
would be left and so the year would equally be divided; but as the last frost 
day in 30 years occurred on the 11th of May and the first on the Ist of Octo- 
ber, there would be left only 142 days and even that is good only for the local- 
ity of the observations in the midst of the city: for on exposed places in the 
open country even in this period frosts may occur, and indeed on the 4th of 
June, 1859, when the thermometer in the city showed a minimum of 35, and 
on the 29th of August, 1868, when the mercury went down to 41, frosts were 
reported from the surrounding country. Moreover the so-called ‘‘white frost” 
may be formed at a temperature of the air above freezing point. All bodies 
radiate heat and their temperature lowers, when they do not receive a fresh 
supply of heat from outside. So do the plants at night time. Radiation takes 
place in all directions to the surrounding air. A small thermometer placed 
in the grass on an unprotected place may very likely show 10 or more degrees 
less than one that is suspended five feet above the ground. The plants exhale 
constantly water in gas form, which precipitates upon the cooled surface, and 
when that cooling reaches the freezing point white frost is formed. 

The difference of temperatures observed in localities of the same latitude 
shows that meteorological observations of one locality are good only for that 
locality and perhaps its next vicinity, and it is lost labor to compute averages 
for wider districts; for instance, of the State of Illinois divided by straight 
lines in a northern, central and southern part, or for even larger areas of five 
or six states, comparing the results with the crops of the same districts so dif- 
ferent not only of temperature and precipitation but in the nature of the soil. 
There is no more sense in it, than would be in computing the temperature of 
the whole of North America. It is only waste of time and paper. 

The means of the single years range between 8 degrees. The lowest mean 
temperature of a year was that of 1857 =48.7; the highest that of 1878 
=656.7. The mean of the first 10 years was 52.1; of the second 51.4; of the 
last 52.7. 


BAROMETER, 


The observations on the pressure of the atmosphere comprise 25 years from 
December 1860 to November 1886. 

The mean reduced to freezing point was 29.628 inches; the mean at 7 A.M, 
is 29.644; at 2 P.M. 29.606; at 9 P.M. 29.634. The highest stand was observed 
in January 1866 30.671, and the minimum in April 1880 =28.581, the 
range being 2.090. The greatest range in one month was observed in January 
1866 =1.676; the smallest in August 1878 =0.288. The highest mean of a 
month had December, 29.698; the lowest May 29.548. The greatest range in 
24 hours was observed in January =—1.028; in July it is only 0.389. ) 

There are generally two oscillations in 24 hours with two minima at 11 A.M. 
and 10 p.M., and two maxima at 4 A.M. and 4Pp.M. The rise and falling is in 
the tropic countries so regular that is possible to determine the day-time from 
the stand of the barometer; in our zone it is more variable, so that often a 
continuous falling or rising for several days is observed. 


PRECIPITATION. 


The mean quantity of rain and melted snow was 35.6 inches per year in 100 
rainy days. The smallest quantity falls in January 1.6 in 7 days, the greatest 


% 


The Climate of Peoria. 39 


in June and July each with 4 inches in 10 and 9 days. The precipitation in 
winter is 6.1 in spring 9.7, in summer 11.2, in fall 8.6. This would be favor- 
able when distributed in that way every year; but the single years differ very 
much. In 1856 it was only 22.8, in 1856 51.4. There are some times long 
droughts. From the 29th of August to the 8th of October 1871 there was 
only one rainy day in the middle of September with 0.65 of an inch of rain. 
The longest period without any rain was in 1861 in October and November, 
which lasted 28 days. There was one of 21 days in April and May I[868, of 
20 days in July 1873, of 19 days andthe same in July and August 1869. 
Some times there are long periods of too much rain, for instance in 1858 
from the 29th of April to the 10th of June 15.7 inches in 27 rainy days. 

The quantity of rain is of less importance than the number of rainy days 
and their distribution. The highest number for one month was 18 in May 
1858 and in July 1865; the lowest in September 1871 and February 1877, each 
with qne rainy day. Suppose that 11 inches of rain in 26 days of the three 
summer months be the most beneficial, and that a plus or minus of 2 inches 
and 2 rainy days be of no importance, then we had in the summers of 1862, 
1869 and 1872:a great excess in quantity, viz: 9.1, 7.8 and 10.8 inches surplus, 
and an excess in the number of rainy days in 1865 and 1866, viz: 18 and 7 
surplus. A deficiency in quantity show the years 1870, 1868 and 1865 with 
6.6, 5.8 and 5.6 minus, and in rainy days 1863 and 1856, viz: 12 and 8 minus. 
The most normal summers (in regard to rain) were 1857 and 1871. The great- 
est quantity of rain for one month was measured in May 1858 =10.64; then 
in June 1872 =9.73, and in September 1875 =9.6. 

The mean precipitation of the single months are: December 2.5; January 
1.6; February 2; March 2.7; April-3.2; May 3.8; June4; July 4; Agust 3.2; 
September 3.5; October 2.7; November 2.4. 


HUMIDITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 


The relative humidity of the air was computed from the difference of the 
wet and dry thermometer by means of Guyot’s tables. When there is no dif- 
ference, the atmosphere is saturated with moisture and that is noted by 100, 
the greater the difference the lower is the percentage; 20 means very dry and 
there is scarcely ever noted a lower figure. The means of the year is at 7 A. 
M. =81; at 2 P.M. =58; at9 P.M. =—75. The highest mean in January at 
7 A.M. is 89; the lowest in May 2 p.m. 50. | 

The pressure of vapor is the highest in July 9 P.M. =0.669 of an inch; the 
lowest in January 7 A.M. =0.114. The means for the year are 0.316 at 7 A.M., 
0.8388 at 2 P.M. and 0.3840 at 9 P.M. 


CLOUDINESS. 


The cloudiness of the sky is expressed by figures, which mean the percent- 
age of covering, 100 was noted when the sky was entirely covered, 50 when 
half, and so on, and 0 when cloudless. The sky is most covered in December 
in the morning and least in August in the evening. The mean for the year is 
46; the highest for a month has December —55; the lowest August =35. 


SUNSHINE. 


From the amount of cloudiness cannot be deduced the time of sunshine 
during a period; for the sky may be half covered, yet the sun may shine dur- 
ing the whole day. It is necessary to note the time of sunshine every day. 
This was done from December 1859 to November 1868 and the result was that 
we had sunshine 58 per cent. of the time from sunrise to sunset. The sun- 
niest months are June and August, each with 71 per cent. 


40 The Climate of Peoria. 


How great the influence of insolation must be upon the growth of plants is 
shown by the difference of the thermometer in the shade and exposed in the 
sun, which in June exceeds 20 degrees and more yet in winter. 


WIND. 


West winds are prevalent from October to-April; south winds during the 
summer; only in August east equals the south. About 12 for each 1000 of ob- 
servations are marked as high winds, gales or hurricanes; but the force of 
winds were not measured by the anemometer, but only estimated, and the 
dates are not quite reliable. The windiest months are March and April, the 
calmest August and September. 

Wind and temperature, wind and cloudiness, wind and precipitation are in 
a certain degree correlative. The warmest winds are south, southwest and 
east; the coldest northwest, north and northeast; the difference between the 
coldest and warmest winds is about 15, in spring even 20 degrees. Above the 
average is the temperature with south and southwest in all the months, with 
east only in the spring and fall. Southeast wind is too scarce, so that no 
reliable mean could be abstracted. The temperature of north is always below. 
Northeast is only in November, December and January above, and that may 
be accounted for by the great quantity of cloudiness that always accompanies 
these winds preventing radiation. Northwest has only in August a tempera- 
ture above average. ‘The region from which this wind comes, is naturally a 
cold one, only during the summer months excessive heat is accumulating, 
which has the above effect upon these winds. The same reason is good for the 
west during all the summer months; in the rest the west winds are cooler. 

Northeast brings the most cloudiness and west the least; the west is the 
only one that has a cloudiness considerably below the average. 

The relation of wind and precipitation must be considered in a double way. 
when we compute the direction of wind in 1000 observations of precipitation, 
then we find that we have 258 times south wind, 174 times east, 159 times 
northeast, 105 times southwest, 95 times west, 84 northwest, 79 north, and 46 
times southeast. But when we reduce the observations of precipitation to 
1000 of each wind direction, then we find for each wind the following per 
mille of rain observations: Northeast 317; southeast 153; southwest 132; 
south 126; northwest 124; east 111; north 98; west 46. That shows that 
northeast is the prevalent rain wind. But the single’ months differ. In sum- 
mer southwest brings the most rain, and nearly all the thunderstorms come 
southwest, west or northwest. The average number in a year is 28. 


SKETCHES 


OF THE 


DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF VEGETATION, 





READ BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION JANUARY 28, 1887, 
BY T. J. BURRILL, PH. D.. A. A. A.S., ETC., 
Professor of Botany University of Lilinois. 





Ir is universally admitted that the Earth as such had a beginning, and 
that, from that beginning, gradual progress has at length made it what we 
now know it to be. School children study in the geographies the distribution 
of the land and the water into great continents and oceans. They learn of 
islands, of peninsulas, of mountains, of plains, of barren deserts and fertile 
valleys, and of seas, of lakes, of rivers and of springs. They have pictured 
for them the plants and the animals of the polar, the temperate and the 
tropical zones —the wonderful diversity and abundance of the vegetable and 
animal kingdoms. Man himself is presented to them in a variety of races, 
differing from each other in the size and proportions of the body, the com- 
plexion of the skin, the nature of the hair, the peculiarities of the skull and 
the qualities and relative activities of the mental and moral natures. Under 
proper instruction the study is an exceedingly interesting one, to a child, and 
the interest never abates as in maturer years we try to gain wider and deeper 
knowledge of the wonderful facts and marvellous forces of the mysterious 
origin and development of the inorganic and organic world. 

It is the purpose of the present paper to present, with no ostentation of 
learning, a few sketches in the history of the vegetable world. To give a 
suitable basis to our story some preliminary topics must be briefly treated. 


THE GENERAL STABILITY OF THE GREAT GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES 
OF THE EARTH. 


We take it as acceptably proved that the great physical features of our 
earth,— the general size'and shape of the continents and seas, the great eleva- 
tions of land and the vast areas and prodigious depths of the ocean reservoirs 
— have been permanent characteristics of our earth. 

There have been many local and temporary fluctuations between the level 
of sea and parts of the land, but the fabulous continents of Lemuria and of 
Atlantis are relegated to the brain of their discoverers, and the oceans from 
which in imagination, lost continents reared their dripping heads in the misty 
ages of the past have no place in the latest scientific deductions concerning 
the geological history of the world. Shallow seas of great extent have in- 
deed occupied areas which are now dry land and what was once dry land is 
now covered with some fathoms of water; but the great trough of the Atlan- 
tic ocean, with its almost soundless bottom, has had an existence from the 


42 Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 


time the imperial command went forth: ‘Let the waters under the heavens 
be collected together unto one place and let the dry land appear.” 

America and Asia were probably connected at what is now Behring’s straits, 
but otherwise these great land masses have had, not only an existence from 
the beginning of continental formations, but a separate existence during all 
time with the mighty stretches of the Pacific between them. It is also pre- 
sumable that land connection existed in the Tertiary period, or before, be- 
tween North America and Europe, where there is now a vast expanse of shal- 
low sea from Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe islands and Great Britain. That 
England joined the continent is undoubted. 

The northern hemisphere has ever been the land hemisphere, the southern 
what it is now,—vast expanses of water. 

We cannot now pause for the proof of these conclusions, but the evidences 
of the general stability of the great and characteristic geographical features 
of our earth are too abundant and too strong to admit other inferences. With 
much change of detail, with numerous oscillations of level, with upheavals 
and denudations, astonishingly great in themselves, but of little comparative 
effect, the great continental masses and the vast ocean areas are to-day what 
they were before the organic world had an existence, and what they have 
ever since continued to be. In an account therefore of the migration of 
plants we are not at liberty to suppose that the geographical world has ma- 
terially changed since this migration begun. 


THE AGE OF THE WORLD. 


The age of the world is a problem which has attracted much attention 
among those best able to solve it. Conclusions have however widely varied. 
No one conversant with geology now pretends to limit the six creative peri- 
ods, called days in the first chapter of Genesis, to twelve or to twenty-four 
hours of time each. Indeed it is impossible from the account itself to strictly 
interpret the term in this manner. 

The “‘evening” and the “‘ morning,” that is, from the evening to the morn- 
ing, constitutes for instance the first day. In a literal interpretation we 
should say this must have been night not day. But if we say the evening 
was the end of a period and the morning was the beginning of another, then 
we have the evening and the morning taken together as the division between 
the two. Eighteen hundred and seventy-six is the evening of British rule, 
and the morning of republican government in our country. No attempt can 
be here made to discuss what has been called the Mosaic cosmogony; but we 
must insist that the Earth with its prairies and forests, its green herbage and 
its maturing seeds, its fragrant flowers and luscious fruits, is many, very many 
times more than six thousand years old. We cannot reckon in years the age 
of the world. We know it has a definite age; but the measure of it has not 
been satisfactorily ascertained. Lyell estimates 240,000,000 years, and Pro- 
fessor Haughton on another basis 200,000,000 years as the time passed since 
the deposition of the earliest sedimentary rocks. Darwin says: ‘ Before the 
lowest Cambrian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed—as long as, 
and probably far longer than, the whole interval from. the Cambrian age to 
the present day; and during these vast periods the world swarmed with living 
creatures.” His estimate of the time from the beginning of the Cambrian 
rocks is 300,000,000 years. Huxley is inclined to fix a greater age than this, 
and named the inside number 500,000,000 years. 

But the physicists reckon less time. Sir William Thomson says 100,000,000 
and Hembholtz 20,000,000, while Newcomb estimates but 10,000,000 years. 
Wallace, taking advantage of preceding discussions, and weighing all the evi-. 
dence concludes that the length of time elapsed since the deposition of the 


Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 43 


earliest existing sedimentary rocks, and therefore the age of the earliest known 
fossils is about 28,000,000 years. These great discrepancies in the estimated 
age of the crust of the Earth arise, not from the untrustworthiness of the tes- 
timony, as one might suppose, but from the different estimates in years of the 
era taken as the unit of the measure for the greater periods. The discrepan- 
cies are to my mind reconcilable, and the number last named is herein taken 
as something like the proximate age of the stratified rocks in the Earth’s 
crust. At all events it cannot be much less. The oldest of these rocks have 
imbedded in them the remains of organic beings. Though fossilized early 
plants have not been found in such abundance as have the remains of certain 
animals, we know that plants must have existed in sufficient numbers before 
animals could live, since the food of the latter depends upon the former. 
Still enough plant fossils have been found and studied to directly furnish infor- 
mation of the existence, and to identify many of the kinds of plants in the 
earliest times. We may therefore assume that more than 20,000,000 years 
have elapsed since plants commenced their growth on the earth. 


THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 


Abundant evidence is left of the former existence of great ice masses over 
the region we now inhabit. Winter reigned from New Jersey to Kansas and 
northward during 160,000 years. Sometimes during this immense period the 
sun shone with illuminating splendor and ferveut heat upon the snow-clad 
hills, but such was the accumulated thickness—1000 or more feet — of the 
ice and snow that the bare ground was seldom exposed and more rarely quick- 
enced with germinating life. The icy masses, pushing from the north in 
great glaciers, crushed and ground the rocky earth which, imbedded in the 
frozen sheet, was finally distributed by the waters from the melting southern 
extremity. The “ drift,” as we call this debris, is 100 and more feet thick in 
my own locality. The boulders with which we are all familiar attest the car- 
rying power and hence the bulk of this prodigious ice-covering. This is what 
is called the glacial period. It is not to be assumed that it is the only occur- 
rence of the kind that has happened to the earth; but it is the one great 
period of low temperature, in the northern hemisphere, which is recent enough 
to materially affect the living vegetable and animal population of which we 
gain acquaintance, through their imbedded remains. 

We are better able to approximately fix the date of this glacial epoch in 
terms of years than of any other geological period; for astronomical calcula- 
tions have been brought to bear upon it in such way. as to acceptably deter- 
mine the time. It is known that the axis of the earth does not remain in a 
fixed direction, continually pointing to the same north and south spots in the 
heavens. Its prolonged northern extremity gradually describes a circle 
which includes within it but not at the center, the ‘“‘north star.’’ This circuit 
is swept by the pole in about 21,000 years and this, er-mbined with the eccen- 
tricities of the earth’s orbit, gives the data for calculating the recurrence of 
alternating colder and warmer winters every 10,500 years for each hemisphere. 
Taking this as a unit of measure and comparing the known variation of the 
earth’s orbit, it is determined that the glacial epoch must have commenced 
about 240,000 years ago and continued at least 160,000 years. Eighty thou- 
sand years ago the glaciers began to dissolve into floods of water and to grad- 
ually recede, leaving the earth again suitable for the growth of vegetation. 
Plants, previously pushed to the southward by the ice, followed again its 
retreat, and at length spread over the desolated area. 

Now we want especially. to note that during this 70 to 80,000 years vegeta- 
tion has been substantially what we now know it to be. During the whole 
stretch of this later time species have not greatly changed. The white pine, 


44 Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 


the white elm and the white oak existed then, the monarchs of the forests, 


having all the characteristics of those of our day. The rich herbage was 
cropped by the deer and the buffalo which have descended without sensible 
change to us, while the monstrous mastodon, which accompanied them, has 
passed away. After the recession of the great ice sheet, 70,000 years ago, from 
the area which we inhabit, flowers of brilliant colors and sweet perfume decked 
the hill-sides and valleys and sweetened the air. Robins fed upon the berries 
of the wild grapevine and of the black cherry tree, and scattered far and wide 
the seeds over the continent so long ago that we should need to multiply the 
age of our nation by more than seven hundred times to express the years. It 
is true, that during this time many minor changes have occurred in the vege- 
tation of our country; but botanists compare the remains of these older 
plants and place them without hesitation in the genera and mostly in the 
species growing at present in our waste places and woodlands. The fact ‘is, 
70,000 years ago is modern time in the history of the world of plants. 

The causes of the cold and wonderful deposit of snow have been well 
worked out, but cannot be entered upon here. Our purpose is gained in call- 
ing attention to the fact and in noting the effect upon vegetation. It is to be 
understood that the whole northern hemisphere was involved in this paroxysm 
of cold. Though the ice did not push its way much south of 38° or 39° north 
latitude, its effects reached much further, how far we cannot say. 

Complete as the evidence of the glacial epoch is, the proof of a preceding 
warm period is equally convincing. Greenland is to-day a region of snow 
and ice. Except in favored localities the vegetation is confined to lichens and 
a few other kinds of low plants capable of resisting the cold of long winters 
and awaking to short periods of activity during the fitful presence of sunshine 
and warm air. But, buried in the rocks, there have been preserved the fos- 
silized remains of an abundant flora, embracing forest trees such as now thrive 
in our own latitude and southward — hickories, oaks, maples, magnolias, sassa- 
fras, the southern cypress, gum trees, and the giant redwoods of California. 


No better evidence can be asked for of the mild character of climate. These’ 


trees could not then, more than now, live in frigid regions. That they lived 
at all is sure testimony that the climate was what would be suitable to them 
now. ‘The species are indeed deemed to be different in most cases; but in 
some are so nearly identical that the closest comparison is required to detect 
the variation. No doubts are entertained as to their generic relations. In 
the ease of the bald cypress not even specific difference has been made out. 
The warm climate prevailed throughout the arctic region. The fossils from 
Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen tell the same story as do those from Greenland 
and Alaska. The whole northern hemisphere had an exceptionally high tem- 
perature. 

Like that of the glacial period the duration of the epoch of high tempera- 
ture covered hundreds of thousands of years and is explained by reference to 
astronomical and geographical conditions, combined in the opposite manner 
from what they were during the period of cold. 


DEVELOPMENT OF PLANTS DURING GEOLOGICAL AGES, 


We have seen that 80,000 years is a comparatively short period in the age of 
the vegetable world. If the limit of man’s years is three score and ten, then 
two and a half months corresponds in his age to 80,000 years in the life 
history of the vegetable kingdom as above estimated. If now we take this 
two and a half months in the period of adult vigor, how much change can be 
detected in the appearance of aman? Yet, we are familiar with the charac- 
teristic of infancy, of youth, of middle and of old age in human beings. So 
all that is necessary to find change in the world of plants, is to extend 


» 


~ 


Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 45 


sufficiently the time. It surely is no argument that such change has never 
taken place, because no difference can be detected since the time when the 
Egyptians first drew figures upon their obelisks and pyramids, or inclosed 
leaves and fruits in the sacred wrapping of their embalmed dead. This was 
but four or five thousand years ago—one and a half hours of man’s life-time, 
according to the comparison just made. 

However it is to be interpreted, the evidence is positive and unmistakable 
that very much change has taken place during the majestic eras in the history 
of plants. The rocks unerringly testify to a gradual development from low 
and simple forms to the more and more complex, ranking successively higher 
and higher in the recognized scale of organization and classification. Ina 
large majority of cases representatives of the various grades of the early 
plants continue to the present, overshadowed and belittled by. their successors 
and descendants. Such are the microscopic forms which in layers and crusts 
of innumerable individuals, tinge with green the old bark of trees, the sur- 
faces of old houses, fences and side-walks; those that form slimy scums on 
water; the mosses and ferns; the reeds and sedges of sloughs; the so-called 
ground pine of the mountains, and finally the coniferous or pine-like trees 
which still assert their position as prominent members of the flora of our 
times. 

For several reasons we are better acquainted with the plants of the coal 
measures than with any other of the geological periods. We cannot say how 
long since this luxuriant vegetation was embalmed in the form in which we 
now find it as coal, but the hundreds of thousands must rise into the millions 
and these again be several times repeated to express in terms of years the 
time which divides the age of the carboniferous rocks from the present. The 
time during which the coal itself was accumulating must have been very great, 
for a century scarcely suffices for the formation of a foot of humus by the 
rankest tropical vegetation of our time. In coal this is compressed to about 
one twenty-seventh of its thickness or less than half an inch. 

‘The flora of that old day was certainly wondrously different from that 
which we are permitted to investigate in the living state. The vegetation 
was rich enough in the masses of its product; but to our senses, accus- 
tomed as we are to the grandeur of trees, the beauty of flowers, the sweet 
fragrance of meadows, the appetizing lusciousness of orchards, the interesting 
and almost infinite variety of vegetable forms which now adorn and enrich 
the Earth — accustomed as we are to these, the dense but sombre and monot- 
onous vegetation of the coal period would strongly impress its gloominess 
upon us, and make us turn again with gratitude to the comparative para- 
dise we are given to dress and enjoy. ‘Then no beautiful flowers, enliv- 
ened by brilliant and varied colors or perfumed by sweet distillations, existed 
amid the rank and coarse leafage of the landscape. Not a single tree sim- 
ilar to our oaks, hickories, lindens, maples, apples, plums, lifted their leafy 
branches towards the sunlight; nor did anything in place of them bear nuts 
or fruits which would have tempted even our first mother Eve to try them. 
The coarse grass-like plants which then existed formed no pastures nor mead- 
ows. The Earth expanded its strength in the production of marsh-loving 
reeds and sedges, of club-mosses and ferns, with here and there a primitive 
pine-like and palm-like tree. Scouring rushes which, one to two feet high, 
to-day attract us by their peculiar structure, then rose in awkward proportions 
thirty or forty feet in height. Ferns waved their feathery foliage from the 
top of stump-like, brown trunks of equal altitude, while the club-mosses, of 
which our diminutive ground pine is a modern example, assumed the propor- 
tions of great forest trees. 

Various reptile-like amphibians of uncouth forms crawled lazily in the 
dense, moist shade, and peculiar insects winged their heavy flight through the 


46 Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 


voiceless air. No song-birds perched upon the branches, no gaudy colored but- 
terflies flitted daintily above the sombre foliage. Vegetation reigned indeed, 
but claimed royalty only in profuseness and abundance. 

In the eras following the coal measures, the pine-like trees—the Coniferee, 
the palms and their allies became prominent; then in the Cretaceous or 
chalky formation just preceding the Tertiary, trees belonging to genera whose 
species make up large proportions of our forests, existed in considerable num- 
bers and gained sizes comparable to those we now know. 

Let it be noted that our birches, beeches, oaks, hickories, poplars, willows 
and the like have, to common eyes, inconspicuous flowers. Not a single flow- 
er hung out its bright-colored petels to the breezes of the early Cretaceous 
times. Grass and sedge-like plants, also similar to ours, then existed; but 
these again had flowers which only botanists with their magnifiers are likely 
to observe. To find the evidence of bright petals and sweetened nectaries we 
must descend through the long eras of the geological periods to near the times 
of the Tertiary rocks. In the so-called upper Cretaceous beds of Dakota — 
the most wonderful fossiliferous strata in existence in many respects— out of 
one hundred dicotyledonous plants described by Lesquereaux, sixty-one are 
apetalous, thirty-five polypetalous and one only monopetalous. The informa- 
tion we possess shows pretty clearly that flowers came into existence in the 
order here noted. The Conifereze and the early monocotyledons like sedges 
and grasses, together with the catkin-bearing trees, are apetalous, or at least 
would be so considered by people not botanists. Polypetalous monocotyledons 
like lilies, and polypetalous dicotyledons like buttercups came next. After 
these occur monopetalous regular flowers like blue-bells and finally those of 
curious irregular shapes like snap-dragonsand orchids. This is at least accord- 
ing to the numerical proportions of described fossils, and undoubtedly is the 
true order of appearance in the history of this interesting part of plant devel- 
ment, 

It is especially to be noticed that along with the evidence of the existence 
of bright-colored flowers, and particularly of those in which the petals are 
united, came the remains of butterflies and bees.. Flowers of the finest types 
and sweetest fragrance bejewelled the landscape and perfumed the air long 
ages before man came as the head and master of the organic world; but, it 
appears, not before insects paid their courtly attentions to them. A little 
further along your attention will be asked to some of these details. 


THE METAMORPHOSES OF PLANTS. 


Turning now to matters of quite another class, your indulgence is asked to 
the recitation of facts most of which must be familiar to many of you. 

In 1790, nearly a hundred years ago, a little work was published by the 
renowned Geethe entitled the Metamorphoses of Plants. The ideas which the 
great and versatile author embodied in this book were not really new; yet his 
promulgation of them in much better shape than they had ever before been 
presented, illustrated with wealth and accuracy of observation, now for the 
first time took possession of the minds of botanists, and became acknowledged 
as true. The theory was that all parts of plants, however different in appear- 
ance, however various in size, shape, color, texture or office, were in origin 
stems or leaves. The complex numbers of other parts as commonly recognized 
were all modifications of one or the other of these two. A root was a stem 
slightly changed in structure and given over to a special function. Bud scales 
and the parts of flowers were leaves. In actual fact leaves were flattened 
expansions of the stem. 

As the result of later studies, and essential agreement of ideas, four funda- 
mental parts are at present accepted, viz: the stem, the root, the leaf and the 


lx 


Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 47 


hair. The last is sometimes thought unnecessary, but we certainly cannot say 
that this organ is a transformed something else. Adopting these four parts as 
essentially distinct, it is usually an easy matter to refer everything else to one 
or the other of them. The so-called roots of mosses are hairs. The abundant 
clothing of all young roots are hairs, performing an exceedingly important 
service. The various grades of woolliness of stems and leaves and even of 
prickles and spines are hairs, often more or less modified. Leaves, besides 
serving as foliage, take great varieties of forms and offices,— notably as parts 
of flowers. Nothing can be better substantiated by observation than that 
each part of a flower, however unlike in appearance and function the original, 
is a modified leaf. The proofs are too well known to admit of discussion here, 
but an illustration may perhaps be permitted. 

We all know what an apple is—a rounded, solidified, spiced, sweetened 
and perfumed mixture of juice and substance, done up in a polished package 

delicately chromoed by the sun. This is our unuttered definition as we help 

ourselves to the best in the basket. Let us try to see what another definition 
may be, at the risk of spoiling some poetical notions which we do and should 
value as agreeable occupants of our minds. 

In an apple blossom it is easy to make out an inside series of green organs’ 
called sepals very similar in structure and appearance to small foliage leaves. 
There are five of them, separate above, united below into a short tube. Borne 
on these are five petals of a delicate pink and white color and larger size; 
next, also attached to upper end of the calyx tube, are numerous stamens and 
finally, in the center of the flower, five pistils with adhering ovaries but dis- 
tinct styles. Let us now examine the matured fruit. 

Starting with the idea that the apple must be a modification of some of the 
above-named fundamental parts of plants, let us endeavor to find out what. 
The stem of the fruit is woody with a thin layer of bark on the outside. The 
depression at the apical part of the apple contains what is often called the 
“eye’’. It has five pointed green appendages which any one may recognize 
as the tips of leaves. 

Let us now cut the apple in two at its equator, so as to leave one-half with 
the stem at its centre and the other half similarly bearing the eye. We first 
see five cavities arranged symmetrically, their pointed internal extremities 
approaching near to acommon centre. The lining of these cavities is cartila- 
ginous, much different from the pulpy texture of the fruit. Looking a little 
closer ten green points can be made out, arranged in a circle something like 
midway between the outer ends of the five cavities and the surface of the 
apple. Five of the green points are opposite the cavities and five alternate 
with them. If we slice off the apple parallel to the first cut, we find the green 
points are still seen, showing that they are really green lines running from 
stem to eye. By careful following, it may be made out that five of them run 
to the leaf points of the eye. Each evidently represents the midvein of this 
transformed leaf. These green dots are the alternating ones with the core cav- 
ities. It seems pretty certain therefore that the apple fruit has in its make-up 
at least five leaves, very much thickened and joined together into one mass, 
except at their tips. These leaves form the outside portion of the apple, their 
lower surfaces being outward and the lower epidermis changing into the skin 
of the fruit. 

On further study it is not difficult to satisfy one’s self that the five core-cav- 
ities are formed, in each case, by the folding of a leaf along the mid-rib, the 
two edges meeting at the centre of the fruit. The green spot is the mid-rib 
of this leaf; the cartilaginous lining of the cavity is the modified upper epi- 
dermis. The exterior portions of these thickened leaves are fused together 
among themselves and with the first five leaves we have described. We find 
then that an apple consists of ten leaves much modified and intimately joined 


48 Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 


into one mass. The stem is the end of a branch, bearing this whorl of leaves. 
This does not, however, tell the whole story. If we examine the cross-sec- 
tion of our apple more attentively, we see other green points, less distinct than 
the ten described. In the blossom the petals stand on the inside upper portion 
of the outside circle of five leaves. These latter constitute the calyx of the 
flowers. In the process of modification the petals — originally leaves and dis- 
tinct from the calyx leaves have been joined with the latter to near their top. 
The only remains of the lower united portion of the petal-leaves are the 
minute green lines to which attention has last been called. Really, then, an 
apple consists of more than ten leaves, but the ten form by far the greater 
portion of the fruit-substance. 

When we eat an apple we eat a cluster of leaves wondrously modified for 
the very purpose of being consumed by some animal whose tastes prompt the 
act. The fine flavor is a stimulus in this direction. The hard parts surround- 
ing the seed are for the protection of the latter, while mastication proceeds. 
Is it hard to see how a plant gains by having its seeds swallowed by an ani- 
mal? If uncrushed they pass the gauntlet of the digestive apparatus un- 
hurt, and well fitted for germination. Wide dissemination results, the very © 
thing required for the abundant multiplication of the species. Apples were 
made to eat, the seeds to be thrown away, and as far as practicable from their 
place of growth. 

Similar studies upon other fruits bring us to similar conclusions. Every 
one knows a strawberry plant by sight. Another native plant, growing wild 
in grassy fields, is familiarly called the barren “strawberry” (Potentilla). The 
two plants are indeed very much alike in leaf and flower, and, with one im- 
portant exception, in fruit also. They are so far as we can see equally hardy 
and thrifty. But the usual numbers of the real strawberry plants along any 
fence row or headland is far in excess of that of the barren strawberry. Why? 
The end of the fruiting stem of the former has gained the habit of swelling 
up into a deliciously flavored highly colored thing we inappropriately call a 
berry. The true fruits are the little seed-like, hard nutlets studding the sur- 
face of the pulpy mass. Each one of these is an ovary formed from a modi- 
fied leaf, producing within one seed. These latter are swallowed uninjured 
through the temptations offered by the glorified tip of the stem. Abundant 
dissemination results; while to the barren strawberry no such aid is coutrib- 
uted. The two plants are certainly near relatives, but one has gained an im- 
portant advantage over the other, and bids fair to keep it. There are no facts 
to which direct appeal can be made; but it is nevertheless almost certain that 
there were barren strawberry plants before there were what we call true straw- 
berries. The little dry fruits were borne upon a dry stem, before they were 
upon a fleshy one. 

In such matters, what transformations have been wrought by cultivation! 
The strawberry itself has been changed almost as much by art as just now 
indicated by nature. Our Ben Davis and Yellow Belleflower apples are far 
different from the hard and sour crabapples of the wild trees. See what a bud 
may become in the cabbage ‘‘head”’! In the ordinary cabbage it is the ter- 
minal bud that assumes such monstrous proportions; in the case of Brussels 
sprouts eight or ten of the lateral buds thickened instead, forming a cluster of © 
heads on the side of the stem; in Kohl-rabi the stem itself is swollen, like a 
turnip growing above ground; while all the buds are of normal size. Now 
all of these garden varieties when left in mild climates to run wild degenerate 
to the same, worthless colewort, showing their original identity. 

Look over a seedman’s catalogue and see the variety of new things in the 
way of vegetables and flowers. After making all allowance for the overdraw- 
ing of the pictures and descriptions, what a lesson may be learned upon the 
‘“‘metamorphoses of plants”! When these cultured varieties are compared 


Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 49 


with the originals of the fields and woodlands, the lesson becomes irresistably 
suggestive to active minds. Take for example the wild rose with its five 
deciduous petals and compare it with a Marechal Niel or the newer Sunset. 
Can it be considered more remarkable that five petals should be developed in 
one instance, than that a hundred should be added in another? 

Having thus hastily called attention to changes occurring under the domin- 
ion of man, a few examples of curious and interesting modifications of the’ 
floral organs of plants that have in some way arisen from simpler states with- 
out man’s influence may be presented. If, as it has been asserted, the sepals 
and petals of flowers are what remains of former real leaves, then flowers in 
which these parts are separate and similar in shape and size are the least trans- 
formed and specialized. A buttercup or a spring beauty illustrates this stage. 
But examine a pansy with its odd caricature of a human face. The petals 
are indeed separate from each other but wonderfully distinct in shape, size and 
coloring. There isa small opening below the centre of the flower. From 
this a channel leads into the ‘‘spur” next the stem. In the latter there isa 
deposit of nectar or honey. Bees are fond of this last; but the only way they 
can secure it is through the small orifice in the face of the flower. Just 
within this opening and above the canal leading to the nectar the swollen end 
of the pistil is located with a sort of swinging trap-door opening downward 
and backward. Pollen is abundantly deposited upon a velvety cushion 
farther back in the canal. If now a bumblebee thrusts its long tongue into 
the facial opening and down the canal it will become covered with the: ad- 
hesive pollen grains. “As the smeared tongue is withdrawn the back of the 
little trap-door only is touched and perhaps closed. To fertilize the ovary it 
is essential that pollen be placed on the part exposed by the opening of the 
valve-like door. It seems clear that this is not likely to happen as the bee 
withdraws its pollen-coated tongue; but let the latter be thrust anew into 
another flower and the point demanded by the flower is attained. The pansy 
rarely sets seeds in these showy flowers without the aid of insects. To attract 
these the honey is secreted. Fragrance aids. The conspicuous coloring is a 
sign, calling attention to the free lunch offered within. 

[The flowers of the common sage, the snap-dragon, and the Dutchman’s pipe 
were explained by the aid of colored figures. It is difficult without cuts to 
describe them. | 

What do these things mean, the wonderful departure from the simple and 
regular forms to secure this adaptation of a flower to an insect? How came 
the transformation about? However we may explain the process, the means 
and methods, the two were made for each other! We have seen the irregular 
and peculiar flowers followed in time the simple and regular ones. The change 
was no noubt, a gradual one and the simpler ones are real ancestors of the 
strangely modified ones. There is no reason to assert it is any the less the 
‘ Creator’s work because the way the matter is accomplished is understood. If 
‘man performs through the medium of a machine of his construction any 
labor, man, not the machine is the true agent of the accomplishment. The 
real Agent of these wonderful transformations remains the same whether we 
ascribe them to direct creations or to the operations of natural selection. 


DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 


Formerly it was assumed that the native habitat of a species was, in some 
peculiar sense, the best place on the Earth for the growth and development of 
the plants constituting the group. The natural conditions and surroundings 
of the home place were, according to this thought, all favorable; any change 
was likely to be detrimental. It was often further assumed that each species 
was created for the given locality in which it was found growing in nature. 


50 Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 


But these views have been greatly modified by further examination. It is 
noted that nearly all our troublesome weeds are foreigners. These are trou- 
blesome in the fields, gardens and waysides because of their vigor of growth, 
their tenaceous hold upon the soil, and their enormous powers of multiplica- 
tion. Of course these things could not exist without adaptation to the condi- 
tions, and without, to them, favorable surroundings. It has not unfrequently 
happened that plants of comparatively feeble development in their native 
country have become conspicuously vigorous when introduced by man else- 
where. We have an often cited, but excellent example in a little water plant 
found in all our streams by those who search for it,—scarcely noticeable in 
any other way —called Anacharis Canadensis. This was taken in some way in 
a living state to England and placed in one of their rivers. To the astonish- 
ment and no doubt in a short time disgust of the introducer it proved to be a 
noxious weed, growing and multiplying wonderfully, choking the water 
courses and demanding in some cases large expenditures for removal. It is 
undeservedly known as Babington’s curse. A like result followed the intro- 
duction of the edible watercress from England into Australia. Three intro- 
duced plants have taken possession (like the white man of America crowding 
out the natives) of the plains of California; but, in this case, they are wel- 
come as pasture herbage. The common plantain, a pest of door-yards was 
called by the Indians the white man’s foot. Our cereals (except maize) and 
garden plants are natives of the Old World, and the same is true of our 
orchard fruits; yet no country in the world produces apples equal to those 
grown in some parts of America. The common potato originally grew upon 
the mountains of Chili. Who could have predicted its renowned develop- 
ment in the moisture-laden atmosphere of an island in another hemisphere and 
across a great ocean? If it is objected that cultivation by man secured these 
results, then mark the wide-spread and abhorred cardoon thistle on the pam- 
pas of South America. The fact is, plants grow where they can, and as they 
can, subject to existing conditions and surroundings; but no one can predict 
how any species will behave under other circumstances and upon other soils. 

Remembering now the immense antiquity of plants and even of most of the 
present species, and taking the great geographical features of the world as, 
upon the whole, similar to what they now are, with an abundant variation in 
detail and great changes of climate, let us endeavor to solve by way of illus- 
tration, a few problems which the present distribution of vegetation presents. 
In this we need not stop to inquire why arctic plants are not found in tropical 
climates, nor why the special vegetation of brackish swamps is not met with 
upon sandy, inland plains; but why rather special groups of plants grow 
where they do and not in other equally favorable localities. If we could read 
upon their leaves the eventful story of descent to our times, every way-side 
weed, as well as every forest tree, would furnish us with most fascinating in- © 
formation in which would come out in one way or another, not only the his- 
tory of weeds and trees; but of the creation and migration of man. Ay! we 
should read of One above man, who from the beginning marshalled according 
to His will, the whole ftretch and scope of all history. Tennyson says:— — 


“Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
Hold you here, root and all in my hand. 
Little flower; but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is.” 


Dr. Gray has given usin an admirable biography something of the story of the 
giant red woods of California. Our abstract cannot do this story justice, but a 
few words from it are eminently appropriate in this place. There are two 


Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 51 


species of these trees, Sequoia gigantica, the largest, and S. sempervirens, the 
most abundant, They occur nowhere else in the world, except as planted by 
man. They have no near relatives. There is no apparent reason in the pecu- 
liarities of the climate or soil to account for this extreme isolation; yet there 
must be sufficient reason for the fact. Curiously such relatives as they have 
are also peculiar in their distribution. One of them is the bald cypress of our 
Southern states ( Zaxodiwm distichum) occurring no where else, and the other 
is a Glyptostrobus, similar to the cypress, in China. Here are four trees con- 
stituting a tribe, two in California, one extending from Maryland to Mexico 
and the other in China. 

Before passing further in the account it may be well to note similar facts in 
regard to other trees. A tree belonging to the genus Torreya grows along the 
shores of a single river in Florida, another occurs in California; while finally 
another species is a native of Japan and the Himalayas. Furthermore, in 
each of these three regions a yew grows, and yew trees are not found elsewhere 
except in Europe. Surely there must be some good cause for this state of 
things. The comparison by no means ends here. The relationship of the 
floras of our Atlantic states and of eastern China and Japan is indeed closer 
than those of the eastern and western shores of the American continent. Now 
relationship means community of descent. There it no other meaning for it. 
Ordinarily when only a few species of a peculiar type exist, they are to be 
looked for in the same country; when it is not so we wonder why. 

Let us not now fall into the old error of imagining different ‘‘centres of 
creation” to explain facts of distribution. Who would think of the white 
inhabitants of Cape Colony as an original population deriving autonomously 
their English-like appearance, habits and industries? or who, finding a com- 
munity composed of Russian mennonites in Dakota would separate them in 
kindred from those of the Czar’s dominions? In such cases migrations are at 
once thought of as explanation. Why should we not think of this.in regard 
to plants? Appealing to fossils for help, the case of the California redwoods, 
with which we began, becomes clearer. It has already been remarked that in 
the rich Tertiary beds of Greenland remains of Sequoias have been found. 
This is also true of Spitzbergen, Iceland, the Mackenzie River country, of 
Alaska and of other Rocky Mountain regions. Fossils have also been ob- 
tained from various parts of Europe, even well southward. As identified there 
formerly were at least six species of Sequoia in the arctic zone, some of which 
spread over large areas in Europe and North America. Instead therefore of 
their present systematic and geographical isolation, their ancestors formed great 
portions of immense forests, covering wide areas of land. The glacial cold 
destroyed them or pushed them southward along territory adapted to their 
growth. In Europe and perhaps in Eastern America barriers cut off their 
retreat. The mountain chains of Southern Europe down whose slopes great 
glaciers pushed towards the plains, together with the Mediterranean sea effect- 
ually blocked the southward march, and annihilation was inevitable. Not so 
with the Rocky mountain system, which stretched to the southward and fur- 
nished, step by step, a highway of refuge. The Taxodiwm and Glyptostrobus 
pushed southward in the same way, survived in different localities, the one in 
America the other in Asia — though they formerly inhabited the same region 
at the north. It would be mere speculation to attempt to give in detail the 
reasons why Sequoia survived only in western, Zaxodiwm in eastern America, 
and Glyptostrobus in Asia; but their present isolation ceases to be mysterious 
after the explanation now given. That the explanation is not a mere accident 
of these species is abundantly shown by the study of other kinds. The cli- 
matal conditions of Europe is certainly as favorable for the numerous kinds 
of trees of varying hardiness as that of the Atlantic states of our Union; but 
the fact is that in our forests are found 66 genera and 155 species of trees, . 


52 Development and Distribution of Vegetation. 


while Europe has only 38 genera and 85 species. Since the introductions by 
man, England alone has at least double the species that can survive in the 
Atlantic states. 

Why this relative poverty of the European forests? Abundant proof exists 
that it was not always so. The Tertiary fossils show that Europe did have 
most if not all our genera and at least as many species. Why they were lost 
has been sufficiently explained if the Sequoia history is true. The similarity 
of the oaks, the chestnuts, the maples, the lindens, etc., is also explained in 
the same manner, and no other adequate reasons have been produced. Not 
only forest trees, but the main elements of the floras of the extra tropical 
northern hemisphere have a similar romance in their pedigree. To-day 
climatal conditions dominate vegetation; but he who would seek to know- 
much of the present distributions of plants must acquaint himself with the 
vegetation of former epochs and eras of plant life on the Earth. 

By taking a wider survey of the vegetation of the Earth the fact becomes 
more positive and conspicuous that during the long ages of their existence 
plants have been distributed from one end to the “other of the globe. One 
hundred and fifteen European genera of flowering plants are found in New 
Zealand, excluding those introduced by, or through the agency of man. 
Among these fifty-eight species are identical. Not less surprising is the fact 
that one hundred and fifty species are common to Scandinavia and the Atlan- 
tic United States. Between sixty and seventy genera of northern plants are 
found in South America south of the lower portions of Chili; and about an 
equal number have representatives in South Africa. 

The causes that have produced this world-wide distribution have been great . 
cosmical fluctuations, involving enormous alternations of warm and cold cli- 
mates, with variations in the terrestrial currents of air and water sweeping 
over wide continents and through immense oceans. He who would understand 
all about the migrations of plants must rise to a knowledge of the history of 
the Earth during, at least, a score of millions of years. 


CATALOGUE OF COLEOPTERA 


COLLECTED IN THE VICINITY OF PEORIA. 





BY EMIL BRENDEL M.D. 


CICINDELID&. 
Tetrarcha virginica L. 


Cicindela unipunctata Fabr. 


. scutellaris Say. 

. modesta Dej. 

. Lecontei Hald. 

. six guttata Fabr. 

. purpurea Oliv. 

. generosa Dej. 

vulgaris Say. 

. repanda Dej. 

. duodecim-guttata Say. 

. hirticollis Say. 
CARABID&. 
Omophron labiatum Fabr. 

O. americanum Dej. 

O. tessellatum Dej. 
Cychrus elevatus Say. 

C. Lecontei Dej. 
Nomaretus fissicollis Lec. 
Carabus sylvosus Say. 

C. serratus Say. 

C. limbatus Say. 

C. vinctus Web. 

Calosoma Willcoxi Lec. 

C. frigidum Kirb. 

C. Sayi Dej. 

C. scrutator Fabr. ® 
C. calidum Fabr. 

C. externum Say, 
Elaphrus ruscarius Say. 

E. Clairvillei Kirb. 
Blethisa quadricollis Hald. 
Notiophilus aeneus Herbst. 
N. semistriatus Say. 
Nebria pallipes Say. 
Pasimachus elongatus Lec. 
Scarites subterraneus Fabr. 


QQ20000000 


Dyschirius sphaericollis Say. 


D. globosus Say. 
D. aeneolus Lec. 





D. hispidus Lec. 

D. haemorrhoidalis Dej. 
D. longulus Lec. 
Ardistomis puncticollis Putz. 
A. viridis Say. 

Clivina bipustulata Fabr. 
C. picea Putz. 

C. cordata Putz. 

C. corvina Putz. 
Schizogenius lineolatus Say. 
S. ferrugineus Putz. 

S. amphibius Hald. 
Panagaeus crucigerus Say. 
Bembidium lucidum Lee. 
. punctato-striatum Say. 
. nitidum Say. 
americanum Say. 

. dorsale Say, 

. laevigatum Say. 

. picipes Kirb. 
maculatum Say. 
chalceum Dej. 
antiquum Dej. 

lugubre Lec. 

planum Hald. 

. versicolor Lec. 

. nigrum Say. 

. patruele Dej. 

Tachys proximus Say. 

T. mendax Lec. 

T. incurvus Say. 

T. ferrugineus Dej. 

T. corruscus Lec. 

T. inornatus Say. 

‘l. laevis Say. 

T. flavicandus Say. 
Patrobus longicornis Say. 
Evarthrus orbatus Newm. 
Pterostichus substriatus Lec. 
P. constrictus Say. 

P. obsoletus Say. 


eohecheshechecReshechesRech=chechecheshe- 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 


. latebrosus Lec. 

. convivus Lec. 

sex impressus Lec. 

. sigillatus Say. 
rotundatus Lec. 
lucublandus Say. 
chalcites Say. 
caudicalis Say. 

. stygicus say. 

. adoxus Say. 

. permundas Say. 

. scrutator Lec. 

. tartaricus Say. 
Amara impuncticollis Say. 
A. angustata Say. 

A. conveniuscula Kirb 
Diplochila major Lec. 
D. laticollis Lec. 
Dicaelus dilatatus Say. 
D. purpuratus Bon. 

D. sculptilis Say. 

D. Dejanei Lec. 
Badister pulchellus Lec. 
Calathus gregarius Say. 
Platynus sinuatus Say. 

. angustatus Say. 

. tenuicollis Lec. 

. decorus Say. 

. decens Say. 

. cupripennis Dej. 
octo-punctatus Fabr. 
aeruginosus Dej. 
Harrisii Lec. 

. placidus Say. 

. luctuosus Say. 

. anchomenoides Rand. 
. lutulentus Lec. 
Leptotrachelus dorsalis Fabr. 
Casnonia pennsylvanica L. 
Galerita janus Fabr. 

G. bicolor Drury. 


Schacha-dachacha-ba-lacha-harla-hacha- 


acha-ha-ba-la-ha-la-la-lacha-ha-ha-) 


Tetragonoderus fasciatus Hald. 


Coptodera aerata Dej. 
Dromius piceus Dej. 
Apristus subsulcatus Dej. 
Lebia grandis Hentz. 
. atriventris Say. 

. pleuritica Lec. 
viridipennis Dej. 
fuscata Dej. 

. pulchella Dej. 
furcata Lec. 
ornata Say. 

. axillaris Dej. 
scapularis De}. 

. pumila Dej. 

. smaragdula Dej. 


salsa] ol alg] al al al al aie 


L. viridis Say. 

L. maculicornis Lec. 

L. bivittata Fabr. 

Blechrus linearis Lec. 
Metabletus americanus Dej. 
Axinopalpus biplagiatus Dej. 
Callida decora Fabr. 

C. viridipennis Say. 

C. purpurea Say. 

Cymindis pilosa Say. 

C. americana Dej. 
Helluomorpha praeusta Dej. 
Brachinus cordicollis Dej. 
B. conformis Dej. 

B. ovipennis Lec. 

B. rejectus Lec. 

B. americanus Lec. 

B. perplexus Dej. 

B. lateralis De}. 

B. fumans Fabr. 

Chlaenius erythropus Germ. 
Ch. rufipes Dej. 

Ch. aestivus Say. 

Ch. prasinus Dej. 

Ch. nemoralis Say. 

Ch. pennsylvanicus Say. 

Ch. tricolor Dej. 

Ch. niger Rand. 

Ch. tomentosus Say. 

Ch. impunctifrons Say. 
Anomoglossus pusillus Say. 
A. emarginatus Say. 

Oodes americanus Dej. 

O. elegans Lec. 

Geopinus incrassatus De}. 
Cratacanthus dubius Beauy. 
Pissoma setosum Lec. 
Agonoderus pallidus Fabr. 
A. lineola Fabr. 

A. dorsalis Lec. 

Harpalus compar Lec. 

H. caliginosus Fabr. 

H. faunus Say. 

Hi. herbiphagus Say. 

H. pennsylvanicus Degeer. 
Selenophorus iripennis Say. 
Stenolophus ochropezus Say. 
St. dissimilis Dej. 

St. verpertinus Lec. 

St. conjunctus Say. 

St. humilis Dej. 

Bradycellus autumnalis Say. 
B. similis Hald. 

B. dichrons Lee. 

Acupalpus carus Lec. 
Tachycellus badiipennis Hald. 
Anisodactylus discoideus Dej. 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 55 


. baltimoriensis Say. 

. higerrimus Dej. 

. nigritus Dej. 

coenus Say. 

rusticus Dej. 

. lugubris Dej. 

carbonarius Say. 

. verticalis Lec. 

. femoralis Dej. 

. interstitialis Say. 

. terminatus Say. 

. nitidipennis Lec. 

Gynanthropus hylacis Say. 
DYTISCID A. 

Haliplus triopsis Say. 

Cnemidotus muticus Lec. 

C. duodecim-punctatus Say. 

Hydrocanthus iricolor Say. 

Laccophilus maculosus Say. 

L. proximus Say. 

L. fasciatus Aubé. 

Hydrovatus cuspidatus Germ. 

Desmopachria convexa Bab. 

Bidessus granarius Aubé. 

B. flavicollis Lee. 

B. affinis Say. 

B. lacustris Say. 

B. pullus Lec. 

Coelambus punctatus Say. 

C. acaroides Lec. 

C. nubilus Lec. 

Deconectes pulcher Motsch. 

’ Hydroporus undulatus Say. 

H. oppositus Say. 

H. dispar Lec. 

H. inconspicuus Lec. 

H. dichrons Mels. 

Ilybius biguttulus Degeer. 


PP >>> >>> bb bb 


Coptotomus interrogatus Fabr. 


Copelatus glyphicus Say. 
Matus bicarinatus Say. 
Agabus obtusatus Say. 

A. stagninus Say. 

A. seriatus Say. 

A. reticulatus Kirb. 
Rhantus calidus Fabr. 
Colymbetes sculptilis Harr. 
Hydaticus bimarginatus Say 
. Dytiscus fasciventris Say. 
D. Harrisii Kirb. 

D. hybridus Aube. 

Acilius fraternus Harr. 

A. mediatus Say. 
Thermonectes basilaris Esh. 
Cybister fimbriolatus Say. 
Gyrinus analis Say. 
Dineutes vittatus Germ. 


D. assimilis Aubé. 
HYDROPHILID. 
Helephorus lineatus Say. 
Hydrochus excavatus Lec. 
Hydrophilus glaber Herbst. 
H, triangularis Say. 
Hydrocharis obtusatus Say. 
Berosus striatus Say. 

B. infuscatus Lec. 

B. exiguus Say. 

Hydrobius etal Say. 

H. subcupreus Say. 
Philhydrus perplexus Lee. 
Ph. nebulosus Say. 
Hydrocombus fimbriatus Mels. 
H. maculicollis Mels. 

H. rotundatus Say. 
Cercyon apicale Say. 

C. anale Payk. 

SILPHID®. 
Leptinus testaceus Mill. 
Necrophorus americanus Oliv. 
N. marginatus Fabr. 

N. orbicollis Say. 

N. pustulatus Hersch. 

N. vespilloides Herbst. 

Silpha ramosa Say. 

S. surinamensis Fabr. 

S. inaequalis Lec. 

S. lapponica Herbst. 

S. noveboracensis Forst. 

Lyrosoma opaca Mann. 

Ptomophagus parasiticus Lec. 

Agathidium ruficorne Lec. 

Scydmaenus clavipes Say. 

S. capillosulus Lec. 

S. magister Lec. 
‘PSELAPHID&. 

Adranes coecus Lec. 

A. Lecontei Brend. 

Ceophilus monilis Lee. 

Cedius spinosus Lec. 

T'mesiphorus costalis Lec. 

T. carinatus Lec. 

Ctenistes piceus Lec. 

Tyrus humeralis Aubé. 

Pselaphus Erichsonii Lec. 

Tychus longipalpus Lec. 

T. minor Lec. 

Bryaxis conjuncta Lec. 

B. Brendelii Horn. 

. Illinoiensis Brend. 

B. abdominalis Aubé. 

B. dentata Say. 

B. rubicunda Aubé. 

B. congener Brend. 

Decarthron abnorme Lec. 


ee) 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 


D. longulum Lec. 

Batrisus ferox Lec. 

B. monstrosus Lec. 

B. frontalis Lec. 

B. riparius Lec. 

B. globosus Lee. 

B. nigricans Lec. 

Rhexius insculptus Lec. 

Trimium americanum Lec. 

Euplectus crinitus Brend. 

E. arcuatus Lec. 
STAPHYLINID®. 

Lomechusa cava Lec. 

Aleochara fuscipes Grav. 

A. bimaculata Grav. 

A. cadaverina Er. 

Conosoma crassum Grav. 

Quedius fulgidus Fabr. 

Creophilus villosus Grav. 


Listotrophus cingulatus Grav. 


Staphylinus maculosus Er. 
St. tomentosus Gray. 

St. violaceus Gray. 

Si. badipes Lec. 

St. vulpinus Nordm. 
Ocypus ater Grav. 


Philonthus cyanipennis Fabr. 


Ph. thoracicus Grav. 

Ph. confertus Lec. 

Ph. baltimorensis Grav. 
Ph. paederoides Lec. 

Ph. apicalis Say. 

Stenus colon Er. 

St. juno Say. 

St. colonus Er. 

St. egenus Er. 

St. femoralis Er. 

St. annularis Er. 

St. punctatus Er. 
Euaesthetus americanus Er. 
Edaphus nitidus Lec. 
Cryptobium bicolor Gray. 
C. cribratum Lec. 

C. pallipes Grav. 
Lathrobium angulare Lec. 
L. simile Lec. 

Stilicus dentatus Say. 

St. angularis Lec. 
Lithocharis confluens Say. 
Paederus littorarius Grav. 
Sunius binotatus Say. 

S. longiusculus Say. 

S. prolixus Er. 
Pinophilus latipes Er. 

P. parcus Lec. 
Tachinus fimbriatus Er. 
T. memnonius Gray. 


T. limbatus Mels. 

Tachyporus jocosus Say. 

T. acautus Say. 

Oxyporus vittatus Gray. 

O. stygicus Say. 

O. femoralis Gray. 

Bledius troglodytes Er. 

B. fumatus Lec. 

B. annularis Lec. 

B. semiferruginosus Lec. 

Platysthetus americanus Er. 

Oxytelus rugosus Gray. 

O. sculptus Grav. 

O. insignitus Gray. 

QO. nanus Er. 

O. nitidulus Gravy. 

Geodromicus caesus Er. 

Olophrum obtectum Er. 

Siagonium americanum Mels. 

Coproporus ventriculus Say. 
SCAPHIDIID®. 

Scaphidium piceum Mels. 

S. quadriguttatum Say. . 

Scaphisoma convexum Motsch. 


COCCINELLID®. 
Hippodamia tridecim-punctata 
H. parenthesis Say. [L. 


H. glacialis Fabr. 

Megilla maculata Degeer. 

Coccinella novem-notata Hbst. 

C. munda Say. 

C. binotata Say. [ Oliv. 

Anatis quindecim punctata 

Psyllobora viginti-maculata 8. 

Chilocorus bivulnerus Mels. 

Exochomus tripustulatus Deg. 

Brachyacantha ursina Fabr. 

B. decem-pustulata Mels. 
ENDOMYCHID&. 

Endomychus biguttatus Say. 

Mycetina perpulchra Newm. 

Aphorista vittata Fabr. 

Phymaphora pulchella Newm. 

Lycoperdina ferruginea Lec. 

Rhanis unicolor Ziegl. 

Languria bicolor Fabr. 

L. Mozardi Latr. 

L. trifasciata Say. 

Dacne quadrimaculata Say. ~ 

Megalodacne fasciata Fabr. 

M. heros Say. 

Ischyrus quadripunctatus Oliv. 

Tritoma thoracica Say. 

T. festiva Lec. 

T. biguttata Say. 

T. angulata Say. 

T. unicolor Say. 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 57 


T. humeralis Fabr. 

Mycotretus pulchra Say. 

M. dimidiata Lec. 
MYCETOPHEGID. 

Mycetophagus punctatus Say. 

M. flexuosus Say. 

M. pini Ziegl. 

Litargus didesmus Say. 

COLLIDIIDA. 

Synchita granulata Say. 

S. nigripennis Lec. 

Ditoma quadri-guttata Say. 


Aulonium paralellopipedum §.- 


Pyenomerus sulcicollis Lec. 
Bothrideres geminatus Say. 
Rhyssodes exaratus Ill. © 
Sylvanus planatus Germ. 

S. surinamensis L. 

S. imbellis Lec. 

S. advena Walt. 

Nauribius dentatus March. 
Catogenus rufus Fabr. 
Cucujus puniceus Mann. 

C. clavipes Fabr. 
Lacmophloeus adnotus Lec. 
L. biguttatus Say. 

Brontes dubius Fabr. 
Telephanus velox Hald. 


Antherophagus ochraceus Mels. 


Cryptophagus cellaris Scop. 

Atomaria mesomelas Herbst. 

A. ochracea Zimm. 
DERMESTID&. 

Byturus unicolor Say. 

Dermestes lardarius L. 

D. marmoratus Say. 

D. caninus Germ.‘ 

Attagenus pellio L. 

Anthrenus castaneus Mels. 


A. varius Fabr. [ Lee. 


Cryptorhopalum haemoroidale 

~ Orphilus ater Er. 
HISTERID &. 

Hister americanus Payk. 

. sedecim-striatus Say. 

. abbreviatus Fabr. 

. subrotundus Say. 

. merdarius Hoffm. 

. interruptus Beauv. 

. bimaculatus L. 

. lardarius Payk. 

. carclinus Payk. 

. Memnonius Say. 

Dendrophilus punctatus Say. 

Tribalus americanus Lec. 


ao fan) enfcejanjanjasias ce 


Haetereus brunnipennis Rand, 


‘Paromalus aequalis Say. 


P. bistriatus Ev. 

Hololepta aequalis Say. 

Saprinus assimilis Payk. 

S. pennsylvanicus Payk. 

S. fraternus Lec. 

S. impressus Lec. 
NITIDULID A. 

Brachypterus urticae Fabr. 

Nitidula zigzag Say. 

N. bipunctulata Say. 

Carpophilus dimidiatus Fabr. 

Epuraea rufa Say. 

E. aestiva L. 

Stelidota octo-maculata Say. 

St. geminata Say. 

Omosita colon L. 

Soronia undulata Say. 

Phenolia grossa Fabr. 

Meligethes rufimanus Lec. 

Amphicrossus ciliatus Oliy. 

Palodes silaceus Er. 

Cryptarcha ampla Er. 

Ips fasciatus Oliv. 

I. sanguinolentus Oliy. 
LATRIDIIDA. 

Latridius lineatus Lec. 

L. sculptilis Lec. 

L. pulicarius Lec. 

Corticaria grossa L. 

C. rugulosa Lec. 

C. Kirbyi Lec. 

C. americana Mann. 

C. pumila Mels. 

Trogosita mauritanica L. 

T. castanea Mels. 

T. dubia Mels. 

T. laticollis L. 

Peltis ferruginea L. 

Monotoma picipes Herbst. 

Nosodendron unicolor Say. 

Cytilus sericeus Forst. 

Byrrhus americanus L. 

Limnichus punctatus Lec. 

PARNIDZ. 

Psephenus Lecontei Dej. 

Helichus fastigiatus Say. 

H. lithophilus Germ. 

H. striatus Lec. 

Elmis nitidulus Lec. 

E. quadrinotatus Say. 

E. pusillus Lec. 

E. fastiditus Lec. 

Stenelmis crenatus Say. 

Macronychus glabratus Say. 

Ancyronyx variegatus Germ. 

Heterocerus cuniculus Kirb. 

H. ventralis Mels. 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 


H. mollinus Kirb. 

H. collaris Kies. 
DASCYLLID. 

Cyphon ruficollis Say. 


Prionocyphon discoideus Say. 


Zenoa picea Beauy. 

Sandalus niger Kn. 
ELATERID&. 

Tharops obliquus Say. 


Dromeolus cylindricollis Say. 
Microrrhagus humeralis Say. - 


Adelocera marmorata Fabr. 
Lacon rectangularis Say. 
Alaus oculatus L. 
Horistonotus curiatus Say. 


Cryptohypnus pectoralis Say. 


C. obliquatulus Mels. 
Elater nigricollis Say. 
E. linteus Say. 

E. sanguinipennis Say. 
E. obliquus Say. 

E. discoideus Fabr. 

E. areolatus Say. 
Drasterius dorsalis Say. 
Monocrepidius bellus Say. 
M. vespertinus Fabr. 
M. lividus Degeer. 


Megapenthes rufilabris Germ. 


Ludius abruptus Say. 

L. alternatus Say. 

Agriotes pubescens Mels. 

Glyphonyx testaceus Mels. 

Melanotus fissilis Say. 

M. communis Fabr. 

M. cinereus Say. 

M. americanus Herbst. 

Limonius griseus Beauv. 

L. auripilis Say. 

L. basilaris Say. 

L. hirticollis Say. 

Pityobius anguinus Lee. 

Athous cucullatus Say. 

Sericoromus silaceus Say. 

-$. humeralis Motsch. 

Corymbites pyrrhus Herbst. 

C. hieroglyphicus Say. 

C. sulcicollis Say. 

C. inflatus Say. 

Asaphes memnonius Herbst. 

A. decoloratus Say. 

Melanactes piceus DeGeer. 

Cebrio bicolor Fabr. 

Drapetes geminatus Say. 
BUPRESTIDEZ. 

Chalcophora campestris Say. 

Ch. virginica Drury. 

Melanophila longipes Say. 


Anthaxia cyanella Lap. 
A. subaensa Lec. 


A. viridifrons Say. 


Xenorhipis Brendelii Lee. 

Chrysobothris femorata Fabr. 

Acmaeodera pulchella Herbst. 

A. tubulus Fabr. 

Ptosima gibbicollis Say. 

Agrilus ruficollis Say. 

. politus Say. 

. subfasciatus Lec. 

. plumbeus Lee. 

. arcuatus Say. 

defectus Lec. 

. bilineatus Say. 

fallax Say. 

. interruptus Lec. 

. puncticeps Lec. 

. otiosus Say. 

. pusillus Say. 

. latebrans Lap. 

Brachys ovata Web. 

Pachyscelus laevigatus Say. 
LAMPYRIDA. 

Calopteron typicum Lec. 

C. terminale Say. 

Caenia dimidiata Fabr. 

Eros oblitus Newm. 

E. mundus Say. 

EK. trilineatus Mels. 

Plateros mollis Lec. 

P. canaliculatus Say. 

P. sollicitus Lec. 

Calochromus perfacetus Say. 

Ellychnia corrusca L. 

Pyropyga nigricans Say. 

Photinus pyralis L. 

Ph. consanguineus Lec. 

Ph. marginatus Lec. 

Ph. scintillans Say. 

Photuris pennsylvanica DeGeer. 

Pyractomena angulata-Say. 

Phengodes plumosa Oliv. 

Chauliognathus pensylvanicus 

Ch. marginatus Fabr. [DeG. 

Podabrus modestus Say. 

P. tomentosus Say. 


PEPE EEE bbb b> 


P. flavicollis Lec. 


P. tricostatus Say. 

P. rugulosus Lee. 
Ditemnus bidentatus Say. 
Trypherus latipenis Germ. 
Collops tricolor Say. 

C. quadrimaculatus Fabr. 
Attalus otiosus Say. 

A. scincetus Say. 

A. terminalis Er. 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 59 


Pseudebzeus apicalis Say.. 
P. oblitus Lec. 

CLERID. 
Cymatodera bicolor Say. 
C. undulata Say. 
C. inornata Say. 
Trichodes Nuttalli Say. 
Clerus nigripes Say. 
C. rosmarus Say. 
C, thoracicus Oliv. 
Thanasimus dubius Fabr. 
T. undulatus Say. 
Thaneroclerus sanguineus Say. 
Hydnocera verticalis Say. 
H. longicollis Ziegl. 
Phylloboenus dislocatus Say. 
Chariessa onusta Say. 


Enoplium quadrinotatum Hald. 


Orthopleura demicornis Fabr. 
Necrobia rufipes Fabr. 
N. violacea L. 
N. ruficollis Fabr. 
PTINIDA. 

Gibbium scotias Scop. 
Ptinus fur L. 
Ernobius mollis L. 
Trichodesma gibbosa Say. 
Anobium notatum Say. 
Trypopitys sericeus Say. 
Petalium bistriatum Say. 
Protheca puberula Lec. 
Coenocera oculata Say. 
Endecatomus rugosus Rand. 
Synoxylon basilare Say. 
Bostrichus bicornis Say. 
Amphicerus bicaudatus Say. 
Dinoderus punctatus Say. 
Lyctus striatus Mels. 
Cupes capitata Fabr. 
Lymexylon sericeum Fabr. 

LAMELLICORNI®. 
Lucanus elephas Fabr. 
L. dama Thunb. 
L. placidus Say. 
Dorcus parallelus Say. 
Platycerus quercus Web. 
Ceruchus piceus Web. 
Passalus cornutus Fabr. 
Canthon laevis Drury. 
C. vigilans Lec. 
C. chalcites Hald. 
C. nigricornis Say. 
Choeridium histeroides Web, 
Copris minutus Drury. 
C. anaglypticus Say. 
C. carolina L. 
Phanaeus carnifex L. 


Orthophagus Hecate Panz. 
O. orpheus Panz. 

O. janus Panz. 

Aphodius fimetarius Fabr. 
A. bicolor Say. 

A. terminalis Say. 

A. femoralis Say. 

A. serval Say. 

A. granarius L. 

A. stercorosus Mels. 
Oxynomus porcatus Fabr. 
Euparia castanea Serv. 
Ataenius abditus Hald. 

A. gracilis Mels. 
A..imbricatus Mels. 
Dialytes strictum Say. 
Bolbocerus farctus Fabr. 

B. tumefactus Beauv. 

B. lazarus Fabr. 
Odontaeus filicornis Say. 
Geotrupes splendidus Fabr. 
G. opacus Hald. 

G. Blackburnii Fabr. 

G. Eyerici Germ. 

Clocotus aphodioides Ill. 
C. globosus Say. 

Trox asper Lec. 

T. terrestris Say. 

T. erinaceus Say. 

T. tuberculatus DeGeer. 
Hoplia modesta Hald. 
Dichelonycha fuscula Lec. 
D. subvittata Lec. 

Serica sericea Ill. 

S. vespertina Gyll. Fabr. 
Macrodactylus subspinosus 
Diplotaxis fronticola Say. 
D. Harperi Bland. 
Lachnosterna futilis Lec. 
L. fraterna Harr. 

LL. ilicis Knoch. 

L. hirticola Knoch. 

L. hirsuta Knoch. 

L. querecus Knoch. - 

L. crenulata Frol. 

L. prunina Lec. 

Anomala binotata Gyll. 

A. luciola Fabr. 

A. minuta Burm. 
Strigoderma arboricola Fabr. 
Pelidnota punctata L. 
Cotalpa lanigera L. 
Cyclocephala immaculata Oliv. 
Chalepus trachypygus Burm. 
Ligyrus relictus Say. 
Aphonus tridentatus Say. 
Xyloryctes satyrus Fabr. 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 


Phileurus tomentosus Beauv. 
Allorhina nitida L. 
Euphoria fulgida Fabr. 

E. inda L. 


KE. sepulcralis Fabr. [ Kirb. 


Cremastochilus canaliculatus 

Osmoderma scabra Beauy. 

O. eremicola Knoch. 

Gnorimus maculosus Burm. 

Trichius piger Fabr. 

T. viridulus Fabr. 

T. aflinis Gory. 

T. delta Forst. 

Valgus squamiger Beauv. 

V. canaliculatus Fabr. 
CERAMBYCIDZ. 

Parandra brunnea Fabr. 

Orthosoma brunneum Forst. 

Prisonus laticollis Drury. 

P. imbricornis L. 

Asemum moestum Hald. 

Criocephalus agrestis Kirb. 

Smodicum cucujiforme Say. 

Physconenum brevilineum Say. 

Hylotrupes cajulus L. 

Phymatodes variabilis Fabr. 

Ph. varius Fabr. 

Ph. amoenus Say. 

Merium proteus Kirb. 


Callidium antennatum Newm. 


Dryobius sex-fasciatus Say. 
Chion garganicum Fabr. 
Eburia quadri-geminata Say. 
Romaleum atomarium Drury. 
R. rufulum Hald. 
Elaphidium villosum Fabr. 
E. mucronatum Say. 

E. parallelum Newm. 

E. unicolor Rand. 

Molorchus bimaculatus Say. 


Callimoxis sanguinicollis Oliy. 


Tragidion coquus L. 

T. fulvipenne Say. 
Purpuricenus humeralis Fabr. 
P. axillaris. 

Batyle suturalis Say. 
Arrhopalus fulminans Fabr. 
Stenosphenus notatus Oliv. 
Calloides nobilis Say. 
Cyllene pictum Newm. 

C. decorum Newm, 
Plagionotus speciosus Say. 
Xylotrechus colonus Fabr, 


X. undulatus Say, [Fabr. 


Neoclytus erythrocephalus 
N. luscus Fabr. 

N. colonus Fabr. 

N. capreae Say, 


eal al cal al nl al al al oy 


Clyanthus ruricola Oliv. 
Cyrtophorus verrucosus Oliy. 
Euderces picipes Fabr. 

E. pini Oliy. 

Microclytus gibbulus Lee. 
Atimia confusa Say. 
Distenia undata Oliv. 
Necydalis mellitus Say. 
Encyclops coeruleus Say. 
Toxotus vitiger Rand. 

T. cinnamopterus Rand. 

T. cylindricollis Say. 
Gaurotes cyanipennis Say. 
Rhagium lineatum Oliv. 
Acmaeops proteus Kirb. 
Bellamira scalaris Say. 
Strangalia famelica Newm. 
St. luteicornis Fabr. 

St. acuminata Oliv. 

St. bicolor Swed. . 
Typocerus lunatus Fabr. 

T. lugubris Say. 

T. zebratus Fabr. 

T. sinuatus Newm. 

Leptura rubrica Say. 

. lineola Say. 

pubera Say. 

proxima Say. 

ruficeps Lec. 

. saucia Lec. 

. cruenta Hald. 

. vittata Germ. 

. capitata Newm. 

. Sphaericollis Say. 
Psenocerus supernotatus Say. 
Monahamus confusor Kirb. 
M. titillator Fabr. 

Goes oculata Lec. 

G. pulverulenta Hald. 
Dorcaschema nigrum Say. 
D. alternatum Say. 
Hatoemis cinerea Oliv. 
Plectrodera scalator Fabr. 
Acanthoderes decipiens Hald. 
Leptostylus aculiferus Lec. 
L. commixtus Hald. 

L. macula Say. 

Liopus alpha Say. 

L. cinerea Lec. 

Lepturges signatus Lec. 

L. angulatus Lec. 

L. farctus Say. 

Hyperplatys aspersus Say. 
H. maculatus Hald. 
Graphisurus pusillus Kirb. 
Urographis fasciatus DeGeer. 
U. triangulifer Hald. 
Acanthocinus obsoletus Oliv. 


" Eupogonius vestitus Say. 


Ecyrus dasycerus Say. 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 61 


Pogonocherus mixtus Hald. 

Saperda calcarata Say. 

. vestita Say. 

. candida Fabr. 

. cretata Newm. 

. lateralis Fabr 

. tridendata Oliv. 

. discoidea Fabr. 

. moesta Lec. 

Oberea mandarina Fabr. 

O. Schaumii Lec. 

Tetraopes femoratus Lec. 

T. tetrophthalmus Forst. 

T. quinque-maculatus-Hald. 
CHRYSOMELID®. 

Donacia rufa Say. 

D. palmata Oliv. 

Zeugophora abnormis Lec. 

Lema collaris Say. 

L. ephhippiata Lec. 

L. trilineata Oliv. 

Crioceris asparagi L. 


RARNNNRMN 


Coscinoptera dominicana Fabr. 


Babia quadriguttata Oliv. 
Saxinis omogera Lec. 
Exema dispar Lec. 
Bassareus congestus Fabr. 
B. lituratus Fabr. 

B. luteipennis Mels. 
Crytocephalus dispersus Hald. 
C. quadri-maculatus Say. 
Pachybrachys luridus Fabr. 
P. trinotatus Mels. 

P. M-nigrum Mels. 

P. femoratum Oliv. 

P. abdominalis Say. 

P. othonus Say. 

Monachus saporatus Fabr. 
Xanthonia decem-notata Say. 
Adoxus vitis L. 

Glyptoscelis crypticus Say. 
G. pubescens Fabr. 

G. barbatus Say. 
Chrysochus auratus Fabr. 
Paria six-notata Say. 

P. quadri-notata Say. 

P. aterrima Oliv. 
Metachroma interrupta. 
Graphops pubescens Mels. 
Colaspis favosa Say. 

C. puncticollis Say. 

C. strigosa Dej. 
Entomoscelis adonidis Fabr. 
Prasocuris phellandrii L. 
Doryphora decem lineata Say. 
D. juncta Germ. 

D. clivicollis Kirb. 


Chrysomela exclamationis Fabr. 


Ch. philadelphica L. 
Ch. Bigsbyana Kirb. 


Ce. scalaris Lec. 

Ch. similis Rog. 

Ch. subopaca Rog. 

Gastroidea polygoni Fabr. 

G. dissimilis Say. 

Lina scripta Fabr. 

L. obsoleta Say. 

Cerotoma caminea Fabr. 

Phyllobrotica discoidea Fabr, 

Phyllechthrus atriventris Say. 

Monocesta coryli Say. 

Diabrotica vittata Fabr. 

D. duodecim-punctata Oliv. 

D. longicornis Say. 

D. fossata Lec. 

Galeruca notata Say. 

G. decora Say. 

Trirhabda attenuata Say. 

Adimoria rufo-sanguinea Say. 

Blepharida rhois Forst. 

Oedionychis vians II]. 

O. gibbitarsa Say. 

O. six-maculata Il. 

O. quercata Fabr. 

O. miniata Fabr. 

Disonycha alternata Il. 

D. collata Fabr. 

D. tyjangularis Say. 

D. bimarginata Say. 

Haltica deities Ill. 

H. exapta Say. 

H. bimarginata Say. 

H. foliacea Lec. 

Crepidodera rufipes L. 

C. helxines L. 

C. eucumeris Harr. 

Caeporis nana Er. 

Systena frontalis Fabr. 

S. blanda Mels. 

Aphthora picta Say. 

Phyllotreta vittata Fabr. 

Chaetocnema denticulata J]l. 

Microropala vittata Fabr. 

M. cyanea Say. 

Odontata scapularis Oliv. 

Octotoma plicatula Fabr. 

Stenispa metallica Fabr. 

Porphyraspis cyanea Say. 

Cassida bivittata Say. 

Coptocycla aurichalcea Fabr. 

C. clavata Fabr. 
TENEBRIONID ©. 

Nyctobates pennsylvanica DeG. 

Upis caramboides L. 

Merinus laevis Oliv. 

Haplandrus femoratus Fabr. 

Scotobates calearatus Fabr 

Tenebrio obscurus Fabr. 

T. molitor L. 

T. castaneus L. 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 


Opatrinus notus Say. 
Blapstinus moestus Mels. 
B. interruptus Say. 
Crypticus obsoletus Say. 
Uloma impressa Mels. 
Anoedus brunneus Zieg]. 
Phaleria picipes Say. 
Diaperes hydni Fabr. 
Hoplocephala bicornis Oliv. 
Platydema ruficorne Sturm. 
P. ellipticum Fabr. 

P. excavatum Say. 


Hyplophloeus parallelus Mels. 


H. thoracicus Mels. 
Boletophagus corticola Say. 
Helops micans Fabr. 
H. venustus Say. 
Meracantha contracta Beauv. 
Stenochidius gracilis Lec. 
Allecula nigrans Mels. 
A. punctulata Mels. 
Hymenorus obscurus Say. 
H. pilosus Mels. 
Cystela sericea Say. 
C. brevis Say. 
Androchirus fuscipes Lec. 
Statyra gagatina Mels. 
Arthromacra aenea Say. 
MELANDRYID&. 
Penthe pimelia Fabr. 
P. obliquata Fabr. 
Synchroa punctata Newm. 
Eustrophus bicolor Fabr. 
Melandria striata Say. 
Emmesa labiata Say. 
Serropalpus striatus Hell. 
Dircaca quadri-maculata Say. 
Hallomenus scapularis Mels. 
Orchesia castanea Mels. 
Scraptia pusilla Hald. 
Mycterus scaber Hald. 
Boros unicolor Say. 
Oxacis thoracica Fabr. 
Asclera puncticollis Say. 


Cephaloon lepturoides Newm. 


MORDELLID , 
Anaspris rufa Say. 
A. lineella Lec. 
A. bidentata Say. 
Mordella melacna Say. 
. oculata Say. 
. octo-punctata Fabr. 
. marginata Mels. 
. lineata Mels. 
. triloba Say. 
. undulata Mels. 
Mordelistena ustulata Lec. 
M. lutea Mels. 
M. pubescens Fabr. 
M. scapularis Say. 


SSSS55 


M. marginalis Say. 
Pyrochoa flabellata Fabr. 
P. femoralis L. 
Schizotus cervicalis Newm. 
ANTHICID®. 
Eurigenius Wildii Lec. 
Stereopalpus badiipennis Lec. 
Corphyra labiata Say. 
C. terminalis Say. 
Xylophilus basalis Lec. 
X. fasciatus Mels. 
Macratria murina Fabr. 
Notoxus bicolor Say. 
N. monodon Fabr. 
N. anchora Hentz, 
N. bifasciatus Lec. 
Tomoderus interruptus Laf. 
Anthicus cinctus Say. 
. elegans Laf. 
. ephippium Laf. 
. cervinus Laf. 
. pubescens Lec. 
. floralis L, 
. vicinus Laf. 
. confusus Lec. 
. spretus Lec. ; 
Dendroides canadensis Latr. 
MELOID &. 
Meloe angusticollis Say. 
Henous confertus Say. 
Tricrania sanguinipennis Say, 
Nemognatha vittigera Lec. 
N. cribraria Lec. 
N. nemorensis Hentz. 
Epicauta vittata Fabr. 
E. ferruginea Say. 
E. cinerea Forst. 
E. pennsylvanica DeGeer. 
Pyrota melabrina Chey, 
Pomphopoca aenea Say. 
Rhipiphorus dimidiatus Fabr. 
R. limbatus Fabr. 
Myodites fasciatus Say. 
CURCULIONID&. 
Rhinomacer elongatus Lec. 
Rhinchites bicolor Fabr. 
R. aeneus Boh. 
Attelabus analis Il. 
A. bipustulatus Fabr. : 
Eugnamptus angustatus Herbst. 
Eu. collaris Fabr. 
Brachyderus incanus L. 
Panscopus erinaceus Say. 
Otiorhynchus sulcatus Fabr. 
Pandeletejus hilaris Herbst. 
Sitones tibialis Germ. 
Phytonomus comptus Say. 
Lepyrus geminatus Say. 
Ithycerus noveboracensis 
Apion segnipes Say. 


p> > p> > p> p> > pe 


Catalogue of Coleoptera. 63 


A. Sayi Schonh. 

A. nustrum Say. 
Listronotus caudatus Say. 
Hylobius pales Boh. 
Pissodes Strobi Peck. 
Grypidius equiseti Gyll. 
Acalytus carpini L. 
Smicronyx vestitus Lec. 
Magdalis pandora Say. 
M. armicollis Say. 

M. pallida Say. 


Anthonomus quadri-gibbus Say, 


Orchestes pallicornis Say. 
Elleschus ephippiatus Say. 


Conotrachelus nenuphar Harr. 


C. crataegi Walsh. 

C. porticatus Boh. 
Rhyssematus lineaticollis Say. 
Tyloderma foveolatum Say. 


Cryptorhynchus bisignatus Say. 


Gymnetron teter Schoenh. 
Lixus concavus Say. 


Mononynchus vulpeculus Boh. 


Copturus operculatus Say. 
Coeliodes acephalus Germ. 
Centorhynchus sulcipennis Lec. 
C. triangularis Say. 

Trichobaris trinotata Say. 
Madurus undulatus Boh. 
Centrinus scutellum-album Say. 
Balaninus nasicus Lec. 
EKupsalis minuta Drury. 
Brenthus anchorago L. 
Sphenophorus sp. 

Calandra oryzae L. [Ill. 
Rhodobaenus tridecim-punctata 
Dryophthorus corticalis Say. 
Cossonus platalea Say. 

C. concinnus Boh. [ Fitch. 
(gnathotrichus materiarius 
Tomicus pini Say. 

Xyloborus xylographus Zimm. 
Hylesinus aculeatus Fabr. 
Cratoparis lunatus Fabr. 
Brachytarsus tomentosus Say. 


THE LAWS OF NATURE AS APPLIED TO THE AFFAIRS 
OF LIFE, 





READ BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION OCTOBER 238, 1885, . 
.BY C. S. CLARK, VICE-PRESIDENT. 





In the effort to make life worth living on this earth, there has been such an 
appalling waste of energy, and such puny results have followed, that the 
thinking men of all ages have seemed to abandon their efforts with a feeling 
of despair. Some have come to the conclusion that by reason of some defect 
or sin of our remote ancestors a punishment has been allotted to all their suc- 
cessors to the end of time. That we are entangled in the meshes of a web,” 
from which there is no escape, unravel as we will. That there is no hope, 
except in spending our lives in trying to get into a better world when we are 
compelled to leave this. Others have thought that there was something 
wrong in the substance of matter itself, for which there was no remedy. The 
Mahommedan reduced it to few words, and said: ‘It is the will of Allah,” 
and so resigned himself under adverse circumstances as best he could. 

All have agreed, however, that evil predominates so largely over good, that 
there must be another world where compensation will be made, at least to a 
part of mankind. A very large majority still hold to one or the other of these 
views, but within the last fifty years, there has been a growing feeling that 
the world may have been mistaken, that it might turn out quite differently 
if we could only gain knowledge sufficient to inquire into the facts of such 
phenomena as presented themselves to our senses. Acting upon this hope, 
schools have multiplied, science has been encouraged, facts have been gathered, 
classified, and reduced to some order. It has been discovered during the in- 
vestigation, that what appeared to be discord and confusion, was really the 
closest order and regularity; so much so, that the wise ones began to say every — 
thing was regulated by law, and they called this uniform succession ‘The 
laws of Nature.”’ These laws, or some of them as applied to the affairs of life, 
is the subject of my paper to-night. | 

It has been said by eminent historians that during the religious wars of 
Europe more than a million of men were killed over the disputed meaning of 
one Greek word. Men no longer resort to arms to settle definitions, still many 
disputes have occurred and great bitterness engendered by reason of a mutual 
misunderstanding of the meaning of the terms used. The term “laws of 
nature”’ is a very misleading one, and has probably crept into scientific litera- 
ture from theological and legal modes of expression. Doubtless learned men 
have a common understanding of its true meaning, but they do not always 
make themselves clearly understood by the people. The plain, common sense 
meaning, as I understand it, is that things in this world move and act in a 
certain observed way and have always done so, under the same or similar cir- 
cumstances, and therefore we feel justified in thinking they always will. 
Water always seeks its level, or, to use a common phrase, runs down hill. 
Apples fall to the ground by reason of the law of gravity, which is believed to 


~ 


The Laws of Nature as Applied to the Affairs of Life. 65 


be the fact with all falling bodies. If a farmer in this latitude should plant 
his corn in January we would say he had departed from the law governing the 
germination of seed. When an oak tree is cut down and begins to decay we 
say that tree is dead, and will appear as a live-oak tree no more forever, 
as that has been the observed fact or law of oak trees since the time when they 
were first felled. A similar experience includes all the different trees of the 
forest, and we say that is a fact or law of all trees which are severed from their 
roots. All these and a thousand others which might be mentioned are facts 
of common observation. No one disputes them or deems them worthy of a 
moment’s discussion; and yet, so far as they go, they embody what we call 
“laws of nature.” Upon such beliefs and similar facts of observation each 
individual acts, and always has. No sort of intelligent life could go on with- 
out a belief in the orderly sequence of all the common movements of nature. 
The same recurrence of events under the same circumstances is all that is 
meant by this term. Why it isso we do not know. All people in past ages, 
and a majority in this, could give you a complete answer to the ‘why’ but as 
science offers no opinion about things it cannot demonstrate, it simply says I 
don’t know. But we do know that chemists, astronomers, mechanics and all 
the workers in the exact sciences, base their work upon this principal of uni- 
formity; without it the ship could never find its way over the trackless ocean. 
Upon land no one would know in the evening that he would find the home he 
‘left in the morning; without it everything would be chaos. The brain of 
man would lose its equilibrium and the human race would disappear. So 
much for adefinition. It is not obscure, needs no man of science to explain 
it, or a learned man to assure you of its truth. 

So far, I think, you will give your ready assent to what I have stated. Now 
I desire to make you see and feel that this orderly sequence of the ways of 
matter and man, is not only true in the common affairs of life, but is equally 
true throughout the whole universe; not only in the starry heavens above, but 
in the earth beneath our feet, and in all there is in it or of it, including the 
grandest movements of nature, and the feeblest efforts of men. 

It seems strange that this conclusion should not have been reached at an 
earlier age, from the very logic of things always known since man began to 
think or reason. Not until Sir Isaac Newton published his “ Principia,” just 
two hundred years ago (which Laplace pronounced “ preéminent above all 
other productions of the human intellect’), was there any general assent even 
among the most learned, to any such universal principle governing even ma- 
terial things. For the first time since the advent of man on earth, the move- 
ments of the sun and planets were known to observe a uniform movement in 
obedience to a law, called the force of gravity. The majesty of this discovery 
is beyond the power of language to describe, yet it was simply a logi®al de- 
duction from his observance of little things, verified by numerous experi- 
ments, and many mathematical calculations. 

James Watts’ observation of the effect of boiling water in his mother’s tea- 
kettle, led to his applying the same principle or law to a propelling engine. 
A little over a hundred years have passed, and to-day it would take an ency- 
clopedia to enumerate its wonderful benefits to mankind. Many of the grand- 
est discoveries have been made by unlearned and unlettered men, but whether 
they knew it or not, the mental process was the same: applying the facts of 
observation to some other thing, or other circumstances which is purely a sci- 
entific mode of reasoning. 

It is often said that many of the most valuable discoveries have been the 
result of accident, but it is not true. The logical deduction from our premises 
says there is no such thing as accidents, and that the word ‘‘luck”’ is the lan- 
guage of ignorance. Does what are called accidents teach the fool anything? 
No, though you bray him ina mortar he is still a fool, and only knows he has 


66 The Laws of Nature as Applied to the Affairs of Life. 


been pounded. An accident, if you please to call it, befell Charles Goodyear. 
Some of you remember the first rubber shoes, one-half an inch thick, melting 
in the sun and congealing in the cold to the hardness of cast iron. Goodyear 
was an unlearned inventor; ‘‘every effort to make his mixture pliable in both 
heat and cold had proved a failure; he had exhausted his resources, the pa- 
tience of his friends, and reduced his family to the greatest poverty. 

“At Woburn one day in the spring of 1839 (says his biographer), he was 
standing with his brother and several others near a very hot stove; he held in 
his hand a mass of his compound of sulphur and gum, upon which he was 
expatiating in his usual vehement manner. In the crises of his argument he 
brought the mass in contact with the stove, which was hot enough to melt 
India rubber instantly. Upon looking at it a moment later he perceived that 
his compound had not melted in the least degree. The result was absolutely 
new to all experience.” The possible application of this seeming accident 
flashed like lightning through this man’s brain; the color ieft his face; he 
could not speak. After many trials he applied the law deduced from this 
accident to his compound. His children no longer cried in vain for bread, and 
the whole world is to-day reaping the fruit of that poor man’s scientific 
brain. Do you call that an accidental discovery? 

Another result of these investigations, beyond all the advantages to man- 
kind in the greater supply of his comforts; and relief from labor, is another 
good, better perhaps than all the rest. The relegating of all things to univer- 
sal law, has emancipated man in a great measure from a mass of superstitions 
and theological terrors. Comets, and strange appearances of the heavens, are 
no longer thought to be exhibitions and warnings of an angry God, or the 
lashings of the tail of an escaped demon. Kingly crowns, phylacteries, robes, 
or a militia general’s uniform, no longer impress the looker-on with the idea 
of divine power. The form may still exist, but it is known to be a shell de- 
pending for influence, not upon robes and epaulets, but upon the character of | 
the man beneath them. Slowly but surely this great truth is gaining ground, 
permeating through all classes of society, lifting them to a higher plane of 
thought, making them eager to discuss new truths, hoping thereby to harmon- 
ize themselves with the forces surrounding them. Also enlarging their views 
of nature, and exalting beyond anything heretofore dreamed of, their concep- 
tion of the Creator, and as a necessary sequence, a diminished respect for his 
mundane advisers. There is also manifest a growing desire on the part of 
many enlightened legislators, to get the laws of the land in harmony with the 
natural movements of the people, so that great hopes are expressed that the 
phrase, “‘ History repeats itself,” will not last forever. A memorable instance 
of growing knowledge in that direction occurred in the English government 
but a f€w years since. In the year 1770 no rain fell in the province of Bengal, 
India. This fine country is situated mostly on the Ganges river, and contained 
at that time thirty millions of people, who were without bread. There was 
no grass and the cattle began to die. Food products rapidly advanced in 
price, and the people began to murmur and cry out against the monopolists 
and forestallers of food. They demanded that the government should imme- 
diately put a check upon their inhuman conduct of making merchandise of a 
starving people. The government of Great Britain did what I think nearly 
all good men and women in America would to-day heartily approve of. They 
caused laws to be passed in that province severely punishing all who should 
speculate upon the sufferings of the people, and sent soldiers to see that these 
laws were obeyed. The clergy in all the pulpits of England thanked the goy- 
ernment in the name of God and humanity for their prompt action to a dis- 
tressed nation. Notwithstanding all this, and all the charities sent them, the 
people began to die. The husbandmen sold their cattle, and then sold their 
implements of agriculture. After consuming everything, they sold their sons 


The Laws of Nature as Applied to the Affairs of Life. 67 


and daughters, till at last there were no buyers of children to be found. The 
living ate the dead; the mother devoured the child lying dead upon her breast, 
which had long since ceased to furnish sustenance to her once loved babe. 
The story, as told by an eye-witness, is too full of horrors to repeat further. 
Out of thirty millions of people, ten millions were dead before the next har- 
vest. Nor was this all. Society was completely demoralized; whole states 
were abandoned and grew up to jungle, and what was once the garden home 
of a happy people became the lair of wolves and tigers. Bengal did not re- 
cover for.fifty years, though the succeeding crops were bountiful. Nearly a 
hundred years after this dire calamity — that is to say in 1866, only nineteen 
years ago — a similar want of rainfall occurred and a similar famine impended. 
At this time — thanks to the growth of knowledge and a close observance of 
economic laws —a few of the governing class of England said in this case his- 
tory shall not repeat itself. Now, can you imagine what they did? I am sure 
it will astonish you as much as it did me when I read it some ten years ago. 
They sent orders to India to encouragé speculators and monopolists to the 
greatest possible extent; to lend them all the money they could, even to the 
point of danger; to build boats and sell them on credit to speculators moving 
grain; to leave trade perfectly free, leaving sellers and buyers to make their 
own bargains. Surely nothing could appear more cruel and cold-blooded than 
this. But mark the result. Rice, wheat and food-stuffs of all kinds flowed to 
this province in obedience to the laws of trade in such quantities that ware- 
houses could not be built fast enough to hold them. The government again 
sent word to lend money to the storehouse monopolists. The famine was stayed. 
Out of thirty-five millions of people less than a thousand died of starvation. 
I imagine the books were made up by the recording angel about as follows: 

Ignorance, sentiment and good intentions killed 10,000,000. Science and 
reason, obeying the laws of trade, 1,000. Balance to the credit of common 
sense, 9,999,000. Report to be sent to St. Peter without remarks. 

Another remarkable instance of the violation of the rights of the people, 
which means a violation of the laws of nature, is quite familiar to you, so far 
as the facts of history are concerned; but perhaps you have not considered it 
in the light I am trying to impress you with to-night. France had been goy- 
erned for a thousand years by priests and nobles, who owned all the land. A 
vicious court, together with a monastic priesthood, devoured everything. The 
people were slaves, or worse than slaves. Misery that would appall us at this 
day existed everywhere. The teachings of Voltaire, Rousseau and other 
thinkers, together with the example of America, finally aroused the people to 
frenzy. They guillotined their king and queen, destroyed the nobles and 
divided their lands among the people, committing in their madness many ex- 
cesses and cruelties, which humanity has good reason to regret. It hits been 
a standing rebuke and supposed to be a crushing argument to this day, when- 
ever a freethinker airs his views, to say: See what infidelity did in France, 
especially in ’98. You! perhaps remember the answer Victor Hugo puts into 
the mouth of the dying revolutionist when visited by the good. bishop. The 
old patriot defended the revolution with great force and feeling. At last the 
good priest, being driven from point to point, said with great severity: “What 
of 93?” With superhuman effort the old soldier raised himself to his feet, 
and with a countenance radiant with the memory of a hundred battles fought 
for the liberties of the people, said: ‘‘ Monsieur, a cloud had been gathering 
in France for fifteen centuries. Ninety-three was the thunderbolt.”’ Ah, yes! 
Thunderbolts are terrible things; it isnature’s way of clearing the atmosphere, 
whether in the heavens or on the earth. A cloud had been gathering in 
America for two hundred years. Sixty-one was our thunderbolt. Its rever- 
beration was heard around the globe, and when the storm cleared away a 
million men lay dead, and the habiliments of woe pervaded the land from 
ocean to ocean. 


68 The Laws of Nature as Applied to the Affairs of Life. 


Perhaps the labor trouble is another forming cloud. If so, it becomes this 
people to see that history does not repeat itself, as surely it will if we do vio- 
lence to the right relation between capital and labor. Three times the writer 
has seen a commercial thunderbolt fall upon the manufacturers of America, 
arising from absurd tariff laws. The railroads are now getting the lightning 
which they themselves manufactured by their pooling system, which is a pal- 
pable violation of trade laws. Some of the manufacturers of our own city are 
going through the same process of purification. The sad feature of these 
thunderbolts is, that they pound away at you until you have paid .back the 
last farthing, and then add penalties for violating the law. Until we learn 
that the principle of uniformity is universal, and applies to every act of man, 
as well as to the forces of nature, we shall ever be getting thunderbolts, and 
ever saying, ‘‘ History repeats itself.’ If our home teaching, school teaching 
and pulpit teaching would grind these truths into the boys and girls, until it 
became part of their constitution, so that when they became men and women 
their acts would flow from them without effort, then many of the errors of our 
day, and of generations before us, would .disappear, and the evils of history 
would not so often repeat themselves. : 

Prof. Huxley says: ‘‘Education is the instruction of the intellect in the 
laws of nature, under which name I include, not merely things and their 
forces, but men and their ways, and the fashionings of the affections and of 
the will, into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those 
laws. For me,” he says, “education means neither more nor less than this. 
Anything whieh professes to call itself education must be tried by this stand- 
ard, and if it fail to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever may 
be the force of authority, or of numbers, on the other side.”’ 

Parents and teachers would do well to remember these words. I fear our 
public school system would be sadly deficient if tried by this standard. 

The teaching of some of these laws to the young does not seem to me to be 
so very difficult. Let us try one of them, and a very important one, I think 
it will be granted by all parents. How can we teach our sons so they will not 
become addicted to one of the worst of vices, that of gambling? Certainly 
not by good advice, and not by telling them it is wicked, for they rather enjoy 
that; and then they do not have to go far from church fairs to convince them 
that it cannot be so very wicked. 

Has science anything better to offer? It seems to me it has. Teach your 
boy by actual experiment that he cannot, in the long run, by any possibility 
win. Take a true dice and let him calculate how many sixes he ought to have 
in ninety-six throws (a larger number would be better), provided all the num- 
bers came up an equal number of times. Now let him shake the box and keep 
tally. @Let him try again and again, and he, and perhaps you will be sur- 
prised at the results. His first lesson is now learned, and the answer is, there 
is no such thing as luck. Now tell him that‘all gambling games have a per- 
centage in favor of the man who runs the game —never less than ten and as 
high as forty per cent. Then take a hundred coffee beans and call them dol- 
lars (silver or nickels would be better), and arrange the game with ten or even 
five per cent. advantage in your favor. Give him the money, and tell him if 
he will play against you one hour every night for a week he shall have all he 
can win. Lend him money whenever he gets broke. At the end of a week 
settle with him, and his second lesson is learned, and the answer is indelibly 
fixed in his mind that he cannot by any possibility gain money in this way. 
Then add your moral and religious teaching and your boy is saved from that 
vice, if he is worth saving. When he is grown and becomes a clerk in a bro- 
ker’s office, or a grain commission house, you will wish to keep him from 
gambling in. stocks or speculating in wheat or corn in the bucket shops 
or on change, and he now needs another scientific lesson. Take a hundred ~ 


4 


The Laws of Nature as Applied to the Affairs of Life. 69 


\ 


coffee beans and a hundred navy beans, mix them together and take them out 
one by one and have him guess what you have, not allowing him to see them 
till you are through (and it would be well that you did not see them your- 
self). Put each kind as he guesses into separate bowls. When he has tried 
this a few times he will have learned this pyschological law, that you cannot 
by any possibility guess right about unknown things more than half the time 
when any considerable number is involved. Now charge him for guessing, a 
quarter of one per cent. (bucket shop price), and he will see at a glance that 
in any event in four hundred deals the innocent commission merchant would 
have all the money, no matter how large his gains may have been at some 
period of the game. 

I could give you many such examples, but one more will suffice; and this is 
addressed to older heads, men of solid sense, men who know all about it, men 
who stand on their feet and consider advice to them superfluous. They have 
made money and know how to do it again. These men often become seized 
with a desire to own a large farm and raise wheat and corn on a large scale. 
They try it and always fail, from the fact that three-fourths of the cereals 
grown in America are raised by the family, who get no wages excepting board 
and clothes. They are free sellers from necessity and make the market. Com- 
petition using hired labor is out of the question. Like the other examples, 
the percentage is against them, It is evidently true and ought to be pro- 
claimed everywhere that the immutable, unchangeable laws are immanent in 
every department of life, and it should be the duty of parents and teachers to 
search for them, not only for themselves, but especially to impart their great 
truths to the plastic youth of the land, compelling them to learn some of these 
fundamental facts. Do not be alarmed at the word compulsion. Nature es- 
tablished compulsory education long ago. She says to man, Some of my laws 
you must learn or I will kill you. You can have your choice of hunger, frost, 
fire or water. They are all the same to me. I care not, whether your diso- 
dience arises from ignorance or intention, as 1am without anger, mercy or 
love; benevolence or malevolence is no part of my business. Obey and you 
live; disobey and I will make you over into other forms. 

To the man in haste she says: Hitch your car to my forces, and I will carry 
you around the earth; sit down in my way, and I will grind you to powder; 
make your bridges good and honest, or [ will hurl mother and child, the 
sweet singer and the hardened criminal to one common destruction; launch 
your boat upon my bosom; set your sails to my breeze, and I will waft you to 
isles of perpetual bloom; but see to it that my laws are not violated in boat, 
captain or crew, or I will leave you a thousand fathoms beneath the sea. 

To the farmer she says: Plant your seed corn according to my order; care 
for it in its infancy, and I will fill your barns with golden ears; I have corn 
and weeds; it is for you to say which you will have. 

To the young man and maiden: Mate yourselves in my ways, and I will 
give you children of joy; disobey and I will send you sons and daughters who 
will make you bow your heads in anguish, and bring you in sorrow to the 

rave. : 
. She says to the benevolent: Distribute the gifts of generous hearts and lov- 
ing souls with great care and solicitude, or I will send you generations of pau- 
pers, who will devour the food intended for your own children. 

To the merchant: Conduct your business in obedience to the laws of trade, 
and you will be rewarded according to your several capacities. 

To the legislator she says: See that you do not run counter to my will in 
making your laws, for disaster may engulf a whole people by the disobedience 
of a few. 

To all, she says: My world is neither good nor bad; the good and evil are 
within you, and you get out of the universe just what you are fitted to 
receive, no more, no less. 


70 The Laws of Nature as Applied to the Affairs of Life. 


It is the study of the laws of nature and the conflict with the elements, of 
which we have only a partial knowledge, that makes intellect. It is the use 
of her forces, which are free to all, without tariffs, or restrictions, that enables 
us to live with comfort and to prolong our lives. 

So far, science has gone but over the threshhold. Scientists know that 
where they have discovered and made sure of a thousand facts, and arranged 
them under the domain of law, there are millions yet to be learned. They 
feel confident, however, in announcing to the world that the fundamental 
‘truth upon which all investigation must be based, is what I have feebly been 
trying to show you to-night. That law, or orderly sequence prevails every- 
where. It may be charged that this is materialism; that it is a cold and cruel 
way of spreading nature’s feast; that it is unlovely, unfeeling, and heartless to 
the last degree. It may be so, but if it be true, it cannot be helped. We may 
have to look farther to get our highest enjoyment. Science only treats of 
phenomena; behind them there may be other truths and other laws, the 
knowledge of which will fill the highest aspirations, satisfy the intellect, and 
soothe the deepest sorrows. Surely no one has any authority to deny this, 
and all the inferences from phenomena would seem to indicate that behind the 
veil there is an eternal force, persistent energy, or God as you may choose to 
call it, which is behind all, over all, in all, and ‘‘ maketh for righteousness.” 
Do not forget, however, that every fact must agree with every other fact; if 
all that we see is harmonious and orderly, it must be equally true of things 
beyond the point of vision; and if any one has reported differently, he must 
have either misunderstood the words spoken, or what is more probable, has 
been incorrectly reported by his biographers. 

In conclusion, do not understand me to say that if we obey all the laws of 
nature now known, we can get rich, be free from disease, mistakes and errors. 
If we could know them all, it might be so, but then we should no longer need 
to live; we should have eaten of the tree of life and become Gods. If life 
could be prolonged for a thousand years, we might possibly learn one in a 
million of nature’s laws, but I think not. AsIsee it, the pursuit of knowl- 
edge and the classifying of it under the domain of law together with the kicks 
and cuffs we get for disobedience, is life itself, and if life is eternal, the pur- 
suit will continue with ever increasing pleasure. Were it not so, individual- 
ism would be lost, Nirvana would be reached and we should be absorbed into 
the infinite. Wecan, however, by lovingly obeying the laws we do know, 
and can find out, greatly lessen our sufferings by decreasing our mistakes, 
errors and sins, even to the extent that we shall no longer ask the question, 
“Ts life worth living?” 

It may happen after generations of obedience, that life may be extended to 
a time when all the senses shall be fully gratified, and death will come like 
sleep to a tired child, who, having had all of the day he wanted, has peace- 
fully and lovingly gone to rest upon the bosom of his mother, 


IS MAN A RINALITY OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION? 





DELIVERED BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, Fripay Eve., JAN. 14, 1887, 


BY JOHN F. KING. 





Ir is wonderful to behold one of Nature’s great plans worked out with such 
undeviating unity of purpose. Though incalculable ages have passed since 
the nucleus of the American Continent was lifted above the waves, we find 
the announcement then made to have been faithfully prosecuted to the end. 
What convincing proofs of the unity of the creative intelligence? The plastic 
rocks have always been moulded by the hands of the same all-providing 
Artificer. How it exalts our apprehension of His infinite attributes to behold 
Him bringing into existence a series of secondary causes so simple in them- 
selves, but working out a succession of results so complete in their details and 
presenting a history stamped with such uniformity of plan, such harmony of 
parts and such wisdom of design? ‘These are only His doings in the material 
world. 

But let us turn to consider the method which reigns among creatures ex- 
alted with the gift of life. Who has not been amazed at the endless variety of 
animal forms existing upon the earth? ‘There seems to be no conceivable con- 
formation, no possible situation, no circumstances of element, climate, food, or 
condition that have not been made the fitting and essential conditions of some 
type of conscious existence. One animal dwells on the land, another in the 
soil, a third in the air, a fourth in salt water, a fifth in fresh. One burrowsin 
a log, another in a rock, a third in the mud, a fourth in the flesh, or brain, or 
liver, or even in the eye of another animal. Ponderous quadrupeds move 
through the jungle, wily serpents glide among the reeds, the centipede 
crouches under a stone, the minnow darts beneath the sedgy bank, and the’ 
lazy oyster sleeps in the mud at the bottom of the bay. We place beneath the 
microscope a specimen of the mud in which the oyster spends his drowsy life, 
or wsample of the water in which the familiar frog delights, and lo! another 
world is revealed to our vision — vegetable and animal life in forms as varied 
as all that the united eye has seen in the greater world. 

Nor is this all. Every one who has read of forms long since extinct, of 
strange and monstrous forms that sported upon the earth before the empires of 
the brute creation had been subjugated by the intellect of man. As we run 
back through the sons preceding, we tread upon the graves of myriads of 
beings which, in their day, swarmed in the depths of the sea, but whose 
lineage and likeness are now known in history; we push back through the dim 
dawn of beings and stand upon the sandy shore of that uneasy sea in which 
creative power first essayed to mould the plastic clay into animal forms and 
plant in them ethereal fire. How reverently do we turn up the cleaving stone 
and gaze upon a little coral, a lingula, or a trilobite, and think that these 

were the forms which God first exerted his skill upon, and placed first in pos- 
session of our round and verdant planet; and how different those beings from 
all we know upon the earth to-day. What an infinite range of altitudes be- 


72 Is Man a Finality of Organic Evolution? 


tween that humble lingula and the majestic mien of man? Such is the ex- 
haustless fertility of God’s conception. | 

We place ourselves, then, upon the threshold of animal existence, and in- 
quire what course creative power will pursue. Shall we witness a series of 
experiments for the slow perfection of «a plan — models and methods tried and 
abandoned — detached essays, having no intelligent connection with an ulti- 
mate or central scheme? With a finite intelligence such experiments would 
have been unavoidable. But Nature has served no apprenticeship; the end 
has been contemplated from the beginning. There are two things which strike 
the attention of every one who studies the history of the ancient populations 
of our globe. First, their forms and features; their habits and the details of 
their living are often in wide contrast with anything we behold in the present 
day. Secondly, while so peculiar in their details, their fundamental features 
are identical with those of existing animals, so that we call them by the same 
generic titles — corals, shells, crustaceans, etc. — and if we. scan the long line 
of beings from the Laurentian to the present, we shall find nothing which may 
not be embraced under the most general designations which we apply to exist- 
ing animals. 

Now which of the two features of the fossil world is the most instructive? 
Theis- wild and extravagant forms astonish us and attract the curiosity of the 
marvel-loving public. Their identity of fundamental plan impresses us with 
awe and reverence, and breathes thoug!its of a world-embracing scope of intel- 
ligence. The first converts the anima! creation into a vast menagerie for the 
curious to wonder at. The latter shows it to be a lesson of wisdom traced by 
the finger of the Omniscient himself. 

Let us see what is the nature of this identity of plan which runs through all 
existence and all times. It is a wonderful fact in nature. From the epoch of 
the St. John molluscs and the Potsdam trilobites; through all the dreary ages 
of the earth’s preparations for man, but four fundamental types of animal 
structure have ever existed. All the varied forms of extinct monsters have 
been constructed upon one or the other of these four fundamental plans. 
Throughout the wide range of existing beings inhabiting the deep sea, popu- 
lating the air, swarming the land and the forest and the jungle — countless 
equally in the number of individuals and in the number of distinguishable 
species — we discover but the same four fundamental plans of structure which 
we find exemplified in the creation of the ancient world. What are the zoé- 
logical characters of these four fundamental forms may be learned from any 
elementary work on the science. It is the magnificent generalization — for 
which we are indebted to the genius of George Cuvier — that I wish to im- 
press. Suffice it to say that all animalsjare either vertebrated — possessed of a 
backbone; articulated — with an external horny crust, composed of rings, like 
insects, lobsters and worms; molluscons— with soft bodies like slugs, very 
often covered with a shell, like snails and oysters; or radiated — with bodies 
composed of parts somewhat symmetrically arranged on all sides with refer- 
ence to the center, like the starfish and the corals. I have named the most 
striking character which distinguishes each of these great branches of the 
animal kingdom. Three of these fundamental plans are called into requisition 
in the constitution of the very first population of our globe. The coral was a 
radiate; the lingula was mollusc; the trilobite was an articulate. The fourth 
plan was drawn upon before the close of the first great period of animal his- 
tory and was realized in the form of a fish. In the very first chapter of the 
book of Nature there we read the announcement of a programme which is still 
in process of execution. The type of the primeval coral has sprouted into the 
tea-nettle and the star-fish; the type of the lingula has expanded into the 
snail, the clam and the cuttle-fish; the type of the trilobite has varied into 
the worm below and the insect above; while the vertebrate type, beginning 


Is Man a« Finality of Organic Evolution? , 73 


with the fish, has developed into the reptile, the bird, the quadruped and man. 
Nor does method.end here, nor the method which had its first announcement 
on the morning of animal existence. J have already alluded to the varied 
conditions under which animal life presents itself; the various ends with refer- 
ence to which animals have been modified — some to swim, some to fly, some 
to climb, some to burrow, some for exalted powers and active habits, others 
for a degraded and sluggish existence. Each fundamental type has been 
moulded and warped and adapted to these varied ends and conditions of being. 
At the same time the grand characteristics of the type have been conserved 
even in its extremest modifications. The modifications of the fundamental 
plan to adapt it to these varied ends are class characters, and we thus find 
that Nature has herself grouped the members of each branch into classes. 
This method is as old as the animal creation. Not only did each creature 
which played its part in the primordial fauna conform to one of the four fun- 
damental types of structure, but it also conformed to the characteristics of one 
of the pre-conceived class modifications of that type. Each class-group is com- 
posed of different grades of animals, constituting so many different. orders 
within the limits of the class. This gradation of ordinal types was also recog- 
nized in the organization of the earliest animals; thus the whole plan of cre- 
ation was mapped out to the mind of the Creator from the beginning. 
We shall see as we,proceed that every step in the evolution of continents and 
the establishment of a home for the coming man, was a monument in a defin- 
ite direction, effected by forces chosen from the first, and shaped always with 
reference to exigencies which were to arise in the far distant future. We shall 
see how the simple animal forms of the primeval ocean embodied in themselves 
germs which were capable of unfolding into the richest variety of adaptations 
and the most exalted capabilities. There can be no nobler, no more instruct- 
ive and inspiring employment than to stand where we do, at the end of this 
long history, and, looking back upon it, catch its method and reproduce in 
our own minds the sublime conceptions of the Architect of the world. To 
him that has glanced over this long line of organic history and observed 
how the ascent from the seaweed to man has been effected, step by step in 
regular succession, can not fail to start the inquiry: “Is man destined to be 
the last term of this series of improving types”? Science affords some inti- 
mations which tend to assure us in the possession of the dignity which we 
now enjoy as the archontes of terrestrial existence. 

In the first place, all geological preparations and ideas converge in man. 
The world seems to have been designed with the view of stimulating to 
activity the powers of a thinking being. The universe is a rational pro- 
duct, and every department of it and every isolated object sustains an intel- 
ligible relation to other parts and objects. We are not left to infer, or even 
to know, that intelligent design is locked up in the secret plans of creation; 
but what is more suggestive, as well as more satisfactory, is the fact that this 
intelligence is potent ‘before our eyes; so that we read, as it were, a reve- 
lation of the thought embodied in the works of thevisible universe, as much 
of that which is not at once manifest yields to investigation, while a stimulus 
to investigation is found in the hints and suggestions which Nature seems 
intentionally to have dropped along the pathway of him who follows the 
beckoning of his thoughts. Not only were these germs of thought planted 
from time to time during the whole progress of the past creation, and not only 
is man the first creature capable of responding to the stimuli to mental activ- 
ity, but more, this mentality, while it differs qualitatively from the highest 
endowments of the lower animals, is in itself the highest’ possible grade of 
endowmer.. It is qualitatively identical with that infinite intelligence whose 
‘presence and supremacy are recognized throughout the universe. It is a fair 
presumption that when the course of animalization has attained the point 


74 Is Man a Finality of Organic Evolution? 


toward which all these intellectual adaptations converge, a point is reached 
which will not be passed except under a different general scheme. 

Similar remarks apply to the co-ordination existing between the material 
and the idea of the beautiful in man. The beauty and sublimity of nature 
have no relation to any other creature. Man is the consummation of a dual- 
ism; while the beautiful implies man it excludes a successor. No endowment 
beyond or higher than a response to the provisions of nature is possible. The 
beneficent provisions of the earth’s crust not only prophesy man, but they 
reach their finality in man. It was only for human uses that the coal was 
treasured in the recesses of the earth. For human uses alone the mountains 
have lifted up their burdens of iron. For human uses only the grandest 
movements of geological history elaborated and distributed a soil. It is only 
for man that the forests yield their abundant supplies of timber and fuel. For 
man the edible and medicinal vegetables were provided. For man the natures © 
of the domestic animals moulded, and their domestic attachments are directed 
to no other being. 

It may be added that vertebrate developments both points towards 
man and attains its consummationin man. The earliest fish, which in the 
waters of the Paleozoic seas, embodied in its asteological organization a 
prophecy of man; the Mesozoic reptile still pointed onward toward man; Ter- 
tiary monkeys were a higher summit of verterbrate organization, from which 
the yet higher alp of human structure was still pointed to, illumined by the 
rising dawn of the modern world. In the skeleton of man we have at last the 
fulfillment of the prophecies of ages. Man stands in the focus of all the con- 
ceptions embodied in past history. We are as little authorized to allow that 
the course of development is destined to advance beyond him as to deny that 
it has furnished intimations in all ages that it was destined to reach him. 
Consider, in the second place, man’s superiority over the brutes. Among the 
myriads of animals which populated the earth during the cycles of geological 
history supremacy was the reward only of superior force. Man gains suprem- 
acy through his intellect. Brutes dominate through the physical forces be- 
longing to matter; man, through the immaterial forces which are the attri- 
butes of Deity. The chasm which separates the intelligence of man from that 
of the brutes is broad. It is not simply a step in the easy gradations observed 
among the brutes themselves — it is a break in the chain of gradations. Even 
if not qualitatively superior to that of brutes, its sudden expansion is so 
great that its sphere of activity creates: a new quality in the being. Man is 
the first being in all the history of the world that could contemplate creation 
and abstract the intelligence displayed in it, and experience a glow of satis- 
faction in attaining to the thoughts first conceived in the mind of the Omnis- 
cient. Man is the first animal capable of contemplating Deity. In these 
extolled endowments not only does he excel the brutes, but he excels them in 
so vast a degree as to suggest the belief that the gradations of animal exist- 
ence had been concluded, and Nature had reached a full pause; the material 
part —the framework — of animality had been perfected by slow gradations; 
and now on the creation of man, Nature superadded an unprecedented endow- 
ment — a spiritual organization, which makes man both a prince and a master- 
piece of creation. . 

When we speak of man’s moral nature we touch a subject which recalls all 
that has just been said of his intellect, and affirms it with redoubled em- 
phasis. There are reasons for believing that this endowment differs in 
kind from anything in the nature of the brute. This, to the ability to under- 
stand God, adds the ability to sympathize in his moral attributes, and to 
enter into moral relations with him and with humanity. Man stands in con- 
tact with God. A farther approximation is impossible. He must be the 
limit, as he is the existing culmination of organic life. These various con- 


Is Man a Finality of Organic Evolution? 75 


siderations, with others, seem to teach that the column of organic suc- 
cession is complete in man. The lower forms, gradually and regularly ascend- 
ing from base to summit, constitute to the shaft of the column; but in man we 
have a sudden expansion, an ornateness of finish, an incorporation of new 
ideas, which designate him as the capital and completion of the grand column 
of organic existence. Consider, in the third place, man’s unlimited geo- 
graphical range. When the first animals were introduced upon the earth they 
found the ocean encompassing it on every side, and creating a uniformity of 
physical conditions which enabled them to range through every latitude and 
longitude in later ages, as the continents with their mountain ranges. Because 
differentiated from the terrestrial mass, and diverse climates were called into 
existence, we find that animals were restricted to successively narrower 
limits. Not only did the growing differentiation of the different regions of 
the earth lead toward the restriction of the faunas, but there is something in 


the higher organisms themselves which specializes them in their adapta- 


tions and unfits them for so wide a range, even with external conditions un- 
changed. Thus, as animal life advanced upward, it became more narrowed 
in the range of its species. The species in possession of the earth immediately 
previous to man were more restricted than any of their predecessors. It would 
certainly be expected from all these analogies that man, on his appearance, 
would be limited to the narrowest bounds of all. What is the fact? Man 
overleaps all barriers. Climates, mountains, oceans, deserts, form no impedi- 
ments to his migration. He, the first of all animals, has literally extended 
over the whole earth, and fulfilled the command to take possession, to use and 
toemploy. What does this signify, if not that man is the completion of the 
series? Animal existence, first narrowed to the smallest limits in its specific 
range, thus suddenly extended to the widest. Man occupies the whole earth; 
he is not only the finishing stroke, but excludes a successor. 

Consider, lastly, man’s erect attitude. When the fish, the earliest repre- 
sentative of the type which embraces man, was introduced into the waters of 
the Devonian sea, the vertebral axis was hung in a hosizontal position, and 
the animal was not endowed with even the power to raise the head by bending 
the neck. Triassic and jurassic enabiasaures, while they continued to inhabit 
the water, breathed the air, and held the head habitually a little elevated. 
The crockadillions, to these endowments, added the power to crawl upon the 
ground. The Dinornis of the crustaceous age walked upon the land with 
the body elevated above the ground, but the head remaining nearly horizontal; 
the birds assumed an oblique position of the spinal axis; and most of the Ter- 
tiary mammals, which followed them, could carry this attitude from the hori- 
zontal to the semi-crest position; the higher monkeys lived normally in a sub- 
erect position, still supporting themselves by the four extremeties. Man, 
first and alone, assumed a perpendicular attitude, and turned his countenance 
toward heaven and talked with the Being who formed him. It is evident no 
further progress can be made in this direction. The elevation of the spinal 
axis has reached a mathematical limit; the consummation of organic exalt- 
ation is attained. Life has been likened unto a tree and man the fruit 
thereof; and, if he is, beyond the fruit the tree cannot grow. A tree ad- 
vances from root to stem, from stem to branch, from branch to leaf, and from 
leaf to blossom and fruit, each rising in importance above the other; but 
when the fruit is attained all that can be done is to perfect it. The root of 
the great tree of life is the radiata, thus raying, ramifying arms and fingers, 
forming its spreading radicles; the trunk of this tree, the mollusca; their 
shelly covering, its bark; the jointed bodies of the articulates form its 
branches, the vertebrates are the leaves. [very leaf has a mid-rib passing 


through its center, from which ribs go to each side to strenghten it, as in ver- 


tebrates the backbone passes through the centre of the animal and ribs proceed 


76 Is Man a Finality of Organic Evolution? 


from it on both sides; the blossoms are the mammalia, or milk-producin 
animals; and its fruit humanity, waiting for the ages to ripen it. This gran 
old tree has been advancing for ages, renewing its rootlets and shedding its 
bark, losing unnumbered branches in the storms of the past, and dropping 
myriads of leaves and blossoms, but, with a sound heart, reproducing better 
than it lost and fruiting in good time, with the promise of the rest when that 
fruit is fully ripe. But what evidence is there that man is the fruit of 
this wonderful tree? What peculiarity is there in the fruit of a tree that dis- 
tinguishes it from every other part? It contains a living principle which 
possesses unlimited duration, and, under favorable circumstances, may unfold 
into a tree equal, or superior, to that from which it sprang; let a piece of the 
root be separated from the tree, it speedily dies and is dissolved to dust. In 
like manner, bark, branches, blossoms and leaves perish when their connec- 
tion with the parent plant is dissevered. The fruit alone contains the power 
of continuous existence within itself. Drop it on the ground or bury it, and 
it lives and grows and sends its type down the ages. So man, the polyp, the 
snail, the worm, the fish, reptile, bird and beast may die when death comes and 
return to the undistinguished dust from which they sprang, but man possesses 
that over which death has no power, and the extinction of one life is but the 
dawn of another. : 

Did not man possess the power of unlimited progress, he would be dropped 
for some form superior to him in this respect. Nature progressed in the fish 
till the fish could advance no further and be a fish; she then progressed in the 
reptile till, in the pterodactyl and allied forms, they could advance no further 
and be reptiles; she then chose the bird, and for the same reason left it behind 
and took the beast. She now has chosen man in whom to embody this prin- 
ciple, and in him she finds that power of unlimited progress which satisfies her 
asarace. Then we satisfy the law, and, as individuals, the great future opens 
its portals for us and presents us a boundless field for our advancement. As 
the earth is being gradually cured of its evils, and as its organic forms have 
been manifested in continually progressive forms, so we may reasonably expect 
a superior race of human beings, and the eventual destruction, by the growth 
of the superior faculties, of the moral evils that war with our higher interests, 
as we have outgrown canibalism to which our forefathers were addicted. As 
we have advanced from the wild savages, with their rude stone weapons, that 
hunted the mammoth through the woods of Great Britain and dwelt in caves 
by the shore, so shall we outgrow war, intemperance, licentiousness, lying, 
bigotry, and every form of wrong-doing, and grow into intelligence, culture 
and every manly virtue. 

What will be the final destiny of the earth? As there was a time when the 
world was not, so there will come a time when it will cease to exist. When 
fruit trees can produce fruit no longer they die and return to the earth to give 
place to those that can produce fruit in turn. And when the earth is old and 
worn out and can no longer administer to man, then we may reasonably 
expect that it will die and return to the sun, from which it probably came. 


THE LAKE AS A MICROCOSM. 





READ BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION FEBRUARY 25, 1887, 
BY S. A. FORBES, A.M., A. A. A. 8., ETC., 
Professor of Zoélogy and Entomology in Lilinois State University, and State Entomologist. 





A lake is to the naturalist a chapter out of the history of a primeval time, 
for the conditions of life there are primitive,—the forms of life are, as a 
whole, relatively low and ancient, and the system of organic interactions by 
which they influence and control each other has remained substantially un- 
changed from a remote geological period. 

The animals of such a body of water are, as a whole, remarkably isolated,— 
closely related among themselves in all their interests, but so far independent 
of the land about them that if every terrestrial animal were suddenly anni- 
hilated, it would doubtless be long before the general multitude of the inhab- 
itants of the lake would feel the effects of this event in any important way. 
One finds in a single body of water a far more complete and independent 
equilibrium of organic life and activity than on any equal body of land. It 
is an islet of older, lower life in the midst of the higher more recent life of the 
surrounding region. It forms a little world within itself,— a microcosm with- 
in which all the elemental forces are at work and the play of life goes on in 
full, but on so small a scale as to bring it easily within the mental grasp. 

Nowhere can one see more clearly illustrated what may be called the sensi- 
bility of such an organic complex,—expressed by the fact that whatever affects 
any species belonging to it, must speedily have its influence of some sort upon 
the whole assemblage. He will thus be made to see the impossibility of study- 
ing any form completely, out of relation to the other forms,— the necessity for 
taking a comprehensive survey of the whole as a condition to a satisfactory 
understanding of any part. If one wishes to become acquainted with the 
black bass, for example, he will learn but little if he limits himself to that 
species. He must evidently study also the species upon which it depends for 
its existence, and the various conditions upon which these depend. He must 
likewise study the species with which it comes in competition, and the entire 
system of conditions affecting their prosperity, and by the time he has studied 
all these sufficiently he will find that he has run through the whole compli- 
cated mechanism of the aquatic life of the locality, both animal and vegeta- 
ble, of which his species forms but a single element. 

It is under the influence of these general ideas that I propose to examine 
briefly to-night the lacustrine life of Illinois, drawing my data from collections 
and observations made during recent years by myself and my assistants of the 
State Laboratory of Natural History. 

The lakes of Illinois are of two kinds, fluviatile and water-shed. The fluvia- 
tile lakes, which are much more numerous and important, are appendages of 
the river systems of the State, being situated in the river bottoms and con- 
nected with the adjacent streams by periodical overflows. Their fauna is 
therefore substantially that of the rivers themselves, and the two should, of 
course, be studied together. 


78 The Lake as a Microcosm. 


They are probably in all cases either parts of former river channels, which 
have been cut off and abandoned by the current as the river changed its course, 
or else-are tracts of the high-water beds of streams over which, for one reason 
or another, the periodical deposit of sediment has gone on less rapidly than 
over the surrounding area, and which have thus come to form depressions in 
the surface which retain the waters of overflow longer than the higher lands 
adjacent. Most of the numerous “horse-shoe lakes” belong to the first of 
these varieties, and the “‘blufflakes”’ situated along the borders of the bottoms, 
are many of them examples of the second. 

These fluviatile lakes are most important breeding grounds and reservoirs of 
life,— especially as they are protected from the filth and poison of towns and 
manufactories by which the running waters of the state are yearly more deeply 
defiled. . 

The amount and variety of animal life contained in them as well as in the 
streams related to them, is extremely variable, depending chiefly on the fre- 
quency, extent, and duration of the overflows. This is, in fact, the character- 
istic and peculiar feature of life in these waters. There is perhaps no better 
illustration of the methods by which the flexible system of organic life adapts 
itself, without injury, to widely and rapidly fluctuating conditions. When- 
ever the waters of the river remain for a long time far beyond their banks, 
the breeding grounds of fishes and other animals are immensely extended, 
and their food supplies increased to a corresponding degree. 

The slow or stagnant backwaters of such an overflow afford the best situa- 
tions possible for the development of myriads of Entomostraca, which fur- 
nish, in turn, abundant food for young fishes of all descriptions. There thus 
results a sudden outpouring of life,— an extraordinary multiplication of near- 
ly every species,— most prompt and rapid, generally speaking, in such as have 
the highest reproductive rate, -- that is to say, in those which produce the lar- 
gest average number of eggs and young for each adult. 

The first to feel this tremendous impulse are the Protophytes and {Protozoa, 
upon which most of the Entomostraca and certain minute insect larve depend 
for food. This sudden development of their food resources causes, of course, 
a corresponding increase in the numbers of the latter classes, and, through 
them, of all sorts of fishes. The first fishes to feel the force of this tidal wave. 
of life, are the rapidly-breeding, non-predaceous kinds; and the last, the game 
fishes, which derive from the others their principal food supplies. Evidently 
each of these classes must act as a check upon the one preceding it. The 
development of animalcules is arrested, and soon sent back below its highest 
point by the consequent development of Entomostraca; the latter, again, are 
met, checked, and reduced in number by the innumerable shoals of fishes with 
which the water speedily swarms; and the lower fishes, springing up at first in 
excessive ratio, are soon driven back to a lower limit by the following exces- 
sive increase of the higher carnivorous kinds. In this way a general adjust- 
ment of numbers to the new conditions would finally be reached spontaneous- 
ly; but long before any such settled balance can be established, often of course 
before the full effect of this upward influence has been exhibited, a new cause 
of disturbance intervenes in the disappearance of the overflow. As the waters 
retire the lakes are again defined. The teeming life which they contain is 
restricted within daily narrower bounds, and a fearful slaughter follows. The 
lower and more defenceless animals are penned up more and more closely with 
their predaceous enemies, and these thrive for a time to 4n extraordinary de- 
gree. To trace the further consequences of this oscillation would take me too 
far. Enough has been said to illustrate the general idea that the life of waters 
subject to periodical expansions of considerable duration, is peculiarly unsta- 
ble and fluctuating,— that each species swings, pendulum-like, but irregularly, 
between a highest and a lowest point, and that this fluctuation affects the dif- 


The Lake as a Microcosm. 79 


ferent on successively, in the order of their dependence upon each other 
for food. 

Where a water-shed is a nearly level plateau with slight irregularities of the 
surface, many of these will probably be imperfectly drained, and the accumulat- 
ing waters will form either marshes or lakes, according to the depth of the 
depressions. Highland marshes of this character are seen in Ford, Livingston, 
and adjacent counties, between the headwaters of the Illinois and Wabash 
systems; and an area of water-shed lakes occurs in Lake and McHenry coun- 
ties, in northeastern Illinois. 

The latter region is everywhere broken by low, irregular ridges of glacial 
drift, with no rock but boulders anywhere in sight. The intervening hollows 
are of every variety, from mere sink-holes, either dry or occupied by ponds, to 
expanses of several square miles, forming marshes or lakes. 

This is, in fact, the southern end of a broad lake belt which borders Lakes 
Michigan and Superior on the west and south, extending through eastern and 
northern Wisconsin and northeastern Minnesota, and occupying the plateau 
which separates the headwaters of the St. Lawrence from those of the Missis- 
sippi. These lakes are of glacial origin, some filling beds excavated in the 
solid rock, and others collecting the surface waters in hollows of the drift. 
The latter class, to which all the Illinois lakes belong, may lie either parallel 
to the line of glacial action, occupying valleys between adjacent lateral 
moraines, or transverse to that line, and bounded by terminal moraines. 
Those of our own State all drain at present into the Illinois, through the Des 
Plaines and Fox; but, as the terraces around their borders indicate a former 
water level considerably higher than the present one, it is likely that some of 
them once emptied eastward into Lake Michigan. Several of these lakes are 
clear and beautiful sheets of water, with sandy or gravelly beaches, and shores 
bold and broken enough to relieve them from monotony. Sportsmen long ago 
discovered their advantages; and club-houses and places of summer resort are 
rapidly springing up on the borders of the most attractive and easily accessi- 
ble. They offer also an unusually rich field to the naturalist; and their zoélo- 
gy and botany should be better known. 

The conditions of aquatic life are here in marked contrast to those afforded 
by the fluviatile lakes already mentioned. Connected with each other or with 
adjacent streams only by slender rivulets; varying but little in level with the 
change of the season, and scarcely at all from year to year; they are character- 
ized by an isolation, independence, and uniformity which can be found no- 
where else within our limits. 

Among these Illinois lakes I did considerable work during October of two 
successive years, using the sounding line, deep sea thermometer, towing net, 
dredge, and trawl in six lakes of northern I[\linois, and in Geneva Lake, Wis- 
consin, just across the line. Upon one of these Illinois lakes I spent a week 
in October, and an assistant, Prof. Garman, now of the University, spent two 
more, making as thorough a physical and zodlogical survey of this lake as was 
possible at that season of the year. 

I now propose to give you in this paper a brief general account of the phy- 
sical characters and the fauna of these lakes, and of the relations of the one 
to the other; to compare, in a general way, the animal assemblages which they 
contain with those of Lake Michigan — where also I did some weeks of active 
aquatic work in 1881— and with those of the fluviatile lakes of central Illi- 
nois; to make some similar comparisons with the lakes of Europe; and, final- 
ly, to reach the subject which has given the title to this paper,— to study the 
system of natural interactions by which this mere collocation of plants and 
animals has been organized as a settled and prosperous community.— First let 
us endeavor to form the mental picture. To make this more graphic and true 
to the facts, I will describe to you some typical lakes among those in which- 


80 The Lake as a Microcosm. 


we worked, and will then do what I can (with much difficulty and perplexity 
no doubt, and I fear with no very brilliant success), to furnish you the ma- 
terials for a picture of the life that swims, and creeps, and crawls and bur- 
rows and climbs through the water, in and on the bottom and among the 
feathery water plants with which large areas of these lakes are filled. 

Fox Lake in the western border of Lake county, lies in the form of a broad 
irregular crescent, truncate at the ends, and with the concavity of the crescent 
to the northwest. The northern end is broadest and communicates with Petite 
Lake. Two points projecting inward from the southern shore form three 
broad bays. The western end opens into Nippisink lake, Crab Island separat- 
ing the two. Fox river enters the lake from the north just eastward of this 
island, and flows directly through the Nippisink. The length of a curved 
line extending through the central part of this lake, from end to end, is very 
nearly three miles, and the width of the widest part is about a mile and a 
quarter. The shores are bold, broken and wooded, except to the north, where 
they are marshy and flat. All the northern and eastern part of the lake was 
visibly shallow,— covered with weeds and feeding water-fowl—and I made no 
soundings there. The water was probably nowhere more than two fathoms in 
depth, and over most of that area was doubtless under one and a half.» In the 
western part, five lines of soundings were run, four of them radiating from 
Lippincott’s Point, and the fifth crossing three of these nearly at right angles. 

The deepest water was found in the middle of the mouth of the western bay, 
where a small area of five fathoms occurs. On the line running northeast from 
the point, not more than one and three-fourths fathoms was found. The bot- 
tom at a short distance from the shores was everywhere a soft, deep mud. 

Four hauls of the dredge were made in the western bay, and the towing net 
was dragged about a mile. 

Long Lake differs from this especially in its isolation, and its smaller size. 
It is about a mile and a half in length by half.a mile in breadth. Its banks 
are all bold except at the western end, where a marshy valley traversed by a 
small creek, connects it with Fox Lake, at a distance of about two miles. The 
deepest sounding made was six and a half fathoms, while the average depth 
of the deepest part of the bed was about five fathoms. 

Cedar Lake, upon which we spent a fortnight, is a pretty sheet of water, the. 
head of a chain of six which open finally into the Fox. It is about a mile in 
greatest diameter in each direction, with a small but charming island bank 
near the center, covered with bushes and vines—a favorite home of birds and 
wild flowers. The shores vary from rolling to bluffy, except for a narrow strip 
of marsh through which the outlet passes, and the bottoms and margins are 
gravel, sand and mud in different parts of its area. Much of the lake is shallow 
and full of water plants; but the northern part reaches a depth of fifty feet, a 
short distance from the eastern bluff. 

Deep Lake the second of this chain, is of similar character, with a greatest 
depth of fifty-seven feet,—the deepest sounding we made in these smaller lakes 
of Illinois. In these two lakes several temperatures were taken with a differen- 
tial thermometer. In Deep Lake, for example, at fifty-seven feet I found the 
bottom temperature 5383°—about that of ordinary well water—when the air 
was 63°; and in Cedar Lake, at forty-eight feet, the bottom was 58° when the 
air was 61°. 

Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, isa clear and beautiful body of water, about eight 
miles long by one and a quarter in greatest width. The banks are all high, 
rolling, and wooded, except at the eastern end, where its outlet rises. Its 
deepest water is found in its western third, where it reaches a depth of twenty- 
three fathoms. I made here early in November, twelve hauls of the dredge 
and three of the trawl, aggregating about three miles in length, so distributed 
in distance and depth as to give a good idea of the invertebrate life of the lake 
at that season. 


_ 


The Lake as a Microcosm. 81 


And now if you will kindly let this suffice for the background or setting of 
the picture of lacustrine life which I have undertaken to give you, I will next 
endeavor —not to paint in the picture—for that I have not the artistic skill— 
but I will confine myself to the humbler and safer task of supplying you the 
pigments, leaving it to your own constructive imaginations to put them on 
the canvas. 

When one sees acres of the shallower water black with water-fowl, and so 
clogged with weeds that a boat can scarcely be pushed through the mass; 
when, lifting a handful of the latter he finds them covered with shells and alive 
with small crustaceans; and then, dragging a towing net for a few minutes, 
finds it lined with myriads of diatoms and other microscopic Algae, and with 
multitudes of Entomostraca, he is likely to infer that these waters are every- 
where swarming with life, from top to bottom, and from shore to shore. If, 
however, he will haul a dredge for an hour or so in the deepest water he can 
find, he will invariably discover an area singularly barren of both plant and 
animal life, yielding scarcely anything but a small bivalve mollusk, a few low 
worms, and red larve of gnats. These inhabit a black, deep, and almost 
impalpable mud or ooze, too soft and unstable to afford foot hold to plants, 
even if the lake is shallow enough to admit a sufficient quantity of light to 
its bottom to support vegetation. It is doubtless to this character of the 
bottom that the barrenness of the interior parts of these lakes is due; and this 
again is caused by the selective influence of gravity upon the mud and detritus 
washed down by rains. The heaviest and coarsest of this material necessarily 
settles nearest the margin, and only the finest silt reaches the remotest parts of 
the lake, which, filling most slowly, remain, of course, the deepest. The 
largest lakes, are not, therefore, as a rule by any means the most prolific of life, 
but this shades inward rapidly from the shore, and becomes at no great distance 
almost as simple and scanty as that of a desert. 

Among the weeds and lily-pads upon the shallows and around the margin, 
the Potamogeton, Myriophyllum Ceratophyllum, Anacharis and Chara, and 
the common Nelumbium—amoug these the fishes chiefly swim or lurk, by far 
the commonest being the barbaric bream or “pumpkin seed” of northern 
Illinois, splendid with its greens and scarlet and purple and orange. Little 
less abundant is the common perch (Perca lutea), in the larger lakes,—in the 
largest outnumbering the bream, itself. The whole sunfish family, to which 
the latter belongs, is, in fact, the dominant group in these lakes. Of the one 
hundred and thirty-two fishes of Illinois only thirty-seven are found in these 
waters—about twenty-eight per cent.—while eight out of our seventeen sun- 
fishes have been taken there. Next, perhaps, one searching the pebbly beach- 
es, or scanning the weedy tracts, will be struck by the small number of min- 
nows or cyprinoids which catch the eye, or come out, in the net. Of our 
thirty-three Illinois cyprinoids, only six occur there — about eighteen per cent. 
—and only three of these are common. ‘These are in part replaced by shoals 
of the beautiful little silversides (Labidesthes sicculus) a spiny-finned fish, 
bright, slender, active, and voracious —as well supplied with teeth as a perch, 
and far better equipped for self-defense than the soft-bodied, and toothless 
cyprinoids. Next, we note that of our twelve catfishes only two have been 
taken in these lakes,—one the common bullhead (Jetalurus nebulosus) which 
occurs everywhere, and the other an insignificant stone cat, not as long as 
one’s thumb. The suckers, also, are much less abundant in this region, the 
buffalo fishes not appearing at all in our collections. Their family is repre- 


sented by the worthless carp, by two redhorse, by the carp sucker and the 


common sucker (Catostomus commersonii), and one other species. Even the 
hickory shad — an ichthyological weed in the Illinois— we have not found in 
these lakes at all. The sheepshead, so common here, is also conspicuous there 
by its absence. The yellow bass, not rare in this river, we should not expect 


82 The Lake as a Microcosm. 


in these lakes, because it is rather a southern species; but why the white bass, 
abundant here, in Lake Michigan, and in the Wisconsin lakes, should be 
wholly absent from the lakes of the Illinois plateau, Iam unable to imagine. 
If it occurs there at all, it must be rare, as I could neither find nor hear of it. 

A characteristic, abundant, and attractive little fish is the log perch (Per- 
cina caprodes),— the largest of the darters—slender, active, barred like a 
zebra — spending much of its time in chase of Entomostraca among the water 
plants, or prying curiously about among the stones for minute insect larve. 
Six darters in all, out of the eighteen from the state, are on our list from these - 
lakes. The two black bass are the popular game fishes — the large-mouthed 
species being much the most abundant. The pickerels, gars, and dog-fish are 
there about as here, but the shovel fish does not occur. : 

Of the peculiar fish fauna of Lake Michigan — the burbot, white fish, trout, 
lake herring or cisco, etc., not one species occurs in these smaller lakes and all 
attempts to transfer any of them have failed completely. The cisco is a nota- 
ble fish of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, but does not reach Illinois except in 
Lake Michigan. It is useless to attempt to introduce it, because the deeper © 
areas of the interior lakes are too limited to give it sufficient range of cool 
water in midsummer. 

In short, the fishes of these lakes are substantially those of their region,— 
excluding the Lake Michigan series (for which the lakes are too small and 
warm) and those peculiar to creeks and rivers. Possibly the relative scarcity 
of catfishes is due to the comparative clearness and cleanness of the waters. I 
see no good reason why minnows should be so few, unless it be the abundance 
of pike and Chicago sportsmen. . 

Concerning the molluscan fauna, I will only say that it is poor in bivalves 
—as far as our observations go—and rich in univalves. Our collections have 
been but partly determined, but they give us three species of Valvata, seven 
of Planorbis, four Amnicolas, a Melantho, two Physas, six Limneas and an 
Ancylus among the Gasteropoda, and two Unios, an Anodonta, a Spherium 
and a Pisidium among the Lamelli branchiates. Pisidiwm variabile is by far 
the most abundant mollusk in the oozy bottom in the deeper parts of the 
lakes; and crawling over the weeds are multitudes of small Amnicolas and 
Valvatas. | 

The entomology of these waters I can merely touch upon, mentioning only 
the most important and abundant insect larve. Hiding under stones and 
driftwood, well aware, no doubt, what enticing morsels they are to a great 
variety of fishes, we find a number of species of Ephemerid larvee whose speci- 
fic determination we have not yet attempted. Among the weeds are the 
usual larvee of dragon flies—Agrionina and Libellulide, familiar to every one; 
swimming in open water the predaceous larve of Corethra; wriggling through 
the water or buried in the mud the larve of Chironomus— the shallow water 
species white, and those from the deeper ooze of the central parts of the lakes, 
blood red and larger. Among Chara on the sandy bottoms are a great number 
and variety of interesting case worms — larvee of Phryganeidz — most of them 
inhabiting tubes of a slender conical form made of a viscid secretion exuded 
from the mouth and strengthened and thickened by grains of sand — fine or 
coarse. One of these cases, nearly naked, but usually thinly covered with 
diatoms, is especially worthy of note, as it has been reported nowhere in this 
country except in our collections, and, was, indeed, recently described from 
Brazil as new. Its generic name is Lageno-psyche, but its species undeter- 
mined. ‘These larvee are also much eaten by fishes. 

Among the worms we have of course a number of species of leeches and of 
planarians,— in the mud minute Anguillulide, like vinegar eels, and a slender 
Lumbriculus, which makes a tubulur mud burrow for itself in the deepest 
water, and also the curious Nais probiscidia — notable for its capacity of mul- — 
tiplication by transverse division. | 


The Lake as a Microcosm. 88 


The crustacean fauna of these lakes is more varied than that of any other 
group. About forty species were noted in all. Crawfishes were not especially 
abundant, and all captured belonged to a single species —Cambarus virilis. 
Two amphipods occurred frequently in our collections; one, less common here 
but very abundant farther south—Crangonyxz gracilis—and one, Allorchestes 
dentata, probably the commonest animal in these waters, crawling everywhere 
in myriads over the submerged water plants. An accasional Gammarus fascia- 
tus was also taken in the dredge. A few isopod Crustacea occur, belonging to 
Mancasellus tenax, Harger,—a species not previously found in the state. 

I have reserved for the last the Entomostraca,— minute crustaceans of a sur- 

rising number and variety, and of a beauty often truly exquisite. They be- 
ong wholly, in our waters, to the three orders, Copepoda, Cladocera, and Os- 
tracoda,— the first predaceous upon still smaller organisms and upon each 
other, and the two others chiefly vegetarian. Twenty-one species of Clado- 
cera have been recognized in our collections, these representing sixteen genera. 
It is an interesting fact that twelve of these species are found also in the fresh 
waters of Europe. Five cyprids have been recognized, two of them common 
to Europe, and also an abundant Diaptomus, a variety of a European species. 
Several Cyclops were collected which have not yet been determined. 

These Entomostraca swarm in microscopic myriads among the weeds along 
the shore, some swimming freely, and others creeping in the mud or climbing 
over the leaves of plants. Some prefer the open water, in which they throng 
locally like flocks of birds, coming to the surface preferably by night, or on 
dark days, and sinking to the bottom usually to avoid the sunshine. These 
pelagic forms, as they are called, are often exquisitely transparent, and hence 
almost invisible in their native element,—a charming device of Nature to 
protect them against their enemies in the open lake, where there is no chance 
of shelter or escape. Then with an ingenuity in which one may almost detect 
the flavor of a sarcastic humor, Nature has turned upon these favored children 
and endowed their most deadly enemies with a like transparency, so that 
wherever the towing net brings to light a host of these crystalline Cladocera, 
there it discovers, also, swimming, invisible, among them, a lovely pair of 
robbers and beasts of prey — the delicate Leptodora and the OCorethra larva. 

These slight, transparent, pelagic forms are much more numerous in Lake 
Michigan than in any of the smaller lakes, and peculiar forms occur there com- 
monly, which are rare in the larger lakes of Illinois and entirely wanting in 
the smallest. 

The vertical range of the animals of Geneva Lake showed clearly that the 
barrenness of the interiors of these small bodies of water was not due.to the 
greater depth,—or at least not to that alone. 

While there were a few species of crustaceans and caseworms which occurred 
there abundantly near shore, but rarely, or not at all, at depths greater than 
four fathoms, and may hence be called littoral species, there was, on the whole, 
little diminution either in quantity or variety of animal life, until about fif- 
teen fathoms had been reached. Dredgings at four and five fathoms were 
nearly or quite as fruitful as any made. On the other hand, the barrenness of 
the bottom at twenty to twenty-three fathoms was very remarkable. The 
total products of four hauls of the dredge and one of the trawl at that depth, 
aggregating fully a mile and a half of continuous dragging, would easily go 
into a two-dram vial, and represented only nine species of animals— not 
counting dead shells and fragments which had probably floated in from shal- 
lower waters. The greater part of this little collection was composed of speci- 
mens of Lumbriculus and larve of Chironomus. There were a few Corethra 
larvee, a single Gammarus, three small leeches, and some sixteen mollusks, all 
but four of which belonged to Pisidium. The others were two Spheriums, a 
Valvata 3—- carinata, and a V. sincera. None of the species taken here were 


84 The Lake as a Microcosm. 


peculiar, but all were of the kinds found in the smaller lakes, and all occurred 
also in shallower water. It is evident that these interior regions of the lakes 
must be as destitute of fishes as they are of plants and lower animals. 

While none of the deep-water animals of the Great Lakes were found in 
Geneva Lake, other evidences of zoélogical affinity were detected. The tow- 
ing net yielded almost precisely the assemblage of species of Entomostraca 
found in Lake Michigan, including many specimens of Limnocolonus macru- 
rus, Sars.; and peculiar long, smooth leeches, common in Lake Michigan, but 
not occurring in the small Illinois lakes, were also found in Geneva. Many 
Valvata 3-carinata lacked the middle carina, as in Long Lake and other isolated 
lakes of this region. 

Comparing the Daphnias of Lake Michigan with those of Geneva Lake, 
Wis. (nine miles long and twenty-three fathoms in depth), those of Long Lake, 
Ill. (one and a half miles long and six fathoms deep), and those of other still 
smaller lakes of that region, and the swamps and smaller ponds as well, we 
shall be struck by the inferior development of the Entomostraca of the larger 
bodies of water, in numbers, in size and robustness, and in reproductive pow- 
er. Their smaller numbers and size are doubtless due to the relative scarcity 
of food. The system of aquatic animal life rests essentially upon the vegeta- 
ble world, although perhaps less strictly than does the terrestrial system; and 
in a large and deep lake vegetation is much less abundant than in a narrower 
and shallower one, not only relatively to the amount of water but also to the 
area of the bottom. From this deficiency of plant life results a deficiency of 
food for Entomostraca, whether of Algze; of Protozoa or of higher forms, and 
hence, of course, a smaller number of the Entomostraca themselves, with more 
slender bodies suitable for more rapid locomotion and wider range. 

The difference of reproductive energy, as shown by the much smaller egg- 
masses borne by the species of the larger lakes depends upon the vastly greater 
destruction to which the paludinal crustacea are subjected. Many of the lat- 
ter occupy wateos liable to be exhansted by drought, with a consequent enor- 
mous waste of Entomostracan life. The opportunity for reproduction is here 
greatly limited —in some situations to early spring alone — and the chances for 
destruction of the summer eggs in the dry and often dusty soil are so numerous ~ 
that only the most prolific species can maintain themselves under such condi- 
tions. 

Further, the marshes and shallower lakes are the favorite breeding grounds 
of fishes, which migrate to them in spawning time, if possible, and it is from 
the Entomostraca found here that most young fishes get their earliest food 
supplies —a danger from which power the deep-water species are measurably 
free. Notonly isa high reproductive therefore rendered unnecessary among the 
latter by their freedom from many dangers to which the shallow-water species 
are exposed, but in view of the relatively small amount: of food available for 
them, a high rate of multiplication would be a positive injury, and could 
result only in wholesale starvation. 

All these lakes of Illinois and Wisconsin, together with the much larger 
Lake Mendota at Madison (in which also I have done much work with dredge, 
trawl, and seine), differ in one notable particular both from Lake Michigan 
and from the larger lakes of Europe. In the latter, the bottoms in the deeper 
parts yield a peculiar assemblage of animal forms, which range but rarely into 
the littoral region, while in our inland lakes no such deep water fauna occurs, 
with the exception of the cisco and the large red Chironomus larva. At Grand 
Traverse Bay, in Lake Michigan, I found at a depth of one hundred fathoms 
a very odd fish of the sculpin family ( 7’riglopsis thompsoni, Gir.), which, until 
I collected it, had been known only from the stomachs of fishes; and there 
also was an abundant crustacean, Mysis,—the ‘opossum shrimp”’, as it is 
sometimes called — the principal food of these deep lake sculpins. Two re-— 


The Lake as a Microcosm. 85 


markable amphipod crustaceans also belong in a peculiar way to this deep 
water. In the European lakes the same Mysis occurs in the deepest part, with 
several other forms not represented in our collections,— two of these being 
blind crustaceans related to those which in this conntry occur in caves and 
wells. 

Comparing the other features of our lake fauna with that of Europe, we 
find a surprising number of Entomostraca identical; but this is a general phe- 
nomenon, as many of the more abundant Cladocera and Copepoda of our 
small wayside pools are either European species, or differ from them so slight- 
ly that it is doubtful if they ought to be called distinct. 

It would be quite impossible within reasonable limits to go into details 
respecting the organic relations of the animals of these waters, and I will con- 
tent myself with two or three illustrations. As one example of the varied 
and far-reaching relations into which the animals of a lake are brought in the 
general struggle for life, I take the common black bass. In the dietary of this 
fish I find, at different ages of the individual, fishes of great variety, represent- 
ing all the important orders of that class; insects in considerable number, 
especially the various water bugs and larve of day-flies; crawfishes, fresh- 
water shrimps, and a great multitude of Entomostraca, of many species and 
genera. The fish is therefore directly dependent upon all these classes for its 
existence. Next looking to the food of the species which the bass has eaten, 
and upon which it is therefore indirectly dependent, I find that one kind of 
the fishes taken feeds upon mud, Algze, and Entomostraca, and another upon 
nearly every animal substance in the water, including mollusks and decompos-~ 
ing organic matter. The insects taken by the bass, themselves take other 
insects and small Crustacea. The crawfishes are nearly omnivorous, and the 
other crustaceans, some of them eat Entomostraca and some Alge and Proto- 
zoa. At only the second step therefore, we find our bass brought intodepend- 
ence upon nearly every class of animals in the water. 

And now, if we search for its competitors we shall find these also extremely 
numerous. In the first place, I have found that all young fishes of every 
description feeds at first almost wholly on Entomostraca, so that the little bass 
finds himself at the very beginning of his life engaged in a scramble for food 
with all the other little fishes in the lake. In fact, not only all young fishes, but 
a multitude of other animals as well, especially insects and the larger Crustacea, 
feed upon these Entomostraca, so that the competitors of the bass are not con- 
fined to members of its own class. Even mollusks, while they do not directly 
compete with it, do so indirectly, for they appropriate myriads of the micro- 
scopic forms upon which the Entomostraca largely depend for food. But the 
enemies of the bass do not all attack it by appropriating its food supplies, for 
many devour the little fish itself. A great variety of predaceous fishes, tur- 
tles, water-snakes, wading and diving birds, and even bugs of gigantic dimen- 
sions destroy it on the slightest opportunity. It is, in fact, hardly too much 
to say that fishes which reach full maturity are relatively as rare as centen- 
arians among human kind. 

As an illustration of the remote and unsuspected rivalries which reveal 
themselves on a careful study of such a situation, we may take the relations 
of fishes to the bladder-wort,—a flowering plant which fills many acres of the 
water in the shallow lakes of northern Illinois. Upon the leaves of this 
species, are found little bladders—several hundred to each plant— which 
when closely examined, are seen to be tiny traps for the capture of Entomos- 
traca and other minute animals. The plant usually has no roots, but lives 
entirely upon the animal food obtained through these little bladders. Ten of 
these sacs which I took at random from a mature plant contained no less than 
ninety-three animals (more than nine to a bladder), belonging to twenty-eight 
different species. Seventy-six of these were Entomostraca, and eight others 


86 The Lake as a Microcosm. 


were minute insect larve. When we estimate the myriads of small insects 
and Crustacea which these plants must appropriate during a year, to their 
own support, and consider the fact that these are of the kinds most useful as 
food for young fishes of nearly all descriptions, we must conclude that these 
plants compete with fishes for food and tend to keep down their number by 
diminishing the food resources of the young. The plants even have a certain 
advantage in this competition, since they are not strictly dependent on Ento- 
mostraca, as the fishes are, but sometimes take root, developing then but very 
few leaves and bladders. This probably happens under conditions unfavora- 
ble to their support by the other method. 

These simple instances will suffice to illustrate the intimate way in which 
the living forms of a lake are united. 

Perhaps no phenomenon of life in such a situation is more remarkable than 
the steady balance of organic nature, which holds each species within the 
limits of a uniform average number, year after year, although every one is 
always doing its best to break across its boundaries, on every side. The repro- 
ductive rate is usually enormous and the struggle for existence is corresponding- 
ly severe. Every animal within these bounds has its enemies, and Nature seems 
to have taxed her skill and ingenuity to the utmost to furnish these enemies 
with contrivances for the destruction of their prey in myriads. For every 
defensive device with which she has armed an animal, she has invented a still 
more effective apparatus of destruction, and bestowed it upon some foe, thus 
striving with unending pertinacity, to outwit herself, and yet life does not 
perish in the lake, nor even oscillate to any considerable degree; but on the 
contrary the little community secluded here is as prosperous as if its state 
were one of profound and perpetual peace. Although every species has to 
fight its way, inch by inch, from the egg to maturity, yet no species is exter- 
minated, but each is maintained at a regular average number which we shall 
find good reason to believe is the greatest for which there is, year after year, a 
sufficient supply of food. | 

I will bring this paper to a close, already too long postponed, by endeavoring 
to show how this beneficent order is maintained in the midst of a conflict 
seemingly so lawless. 

It is a self-evident proposition that a species cannot maintain itself contin- 
uously, year after year, unless its birth-rate at least equals its death-rate. If 
it is preyed upon by another species, it must produce regularly an excess of 
individuals for destruction, or else it must certainly dwindle and disappear. 
On the other hand, the dependent species evidently must not appropriate, on 
an average, any more than the surplus and excess of individuals upon which 
it preys, for if it does so, it will regularly diminish its own food supply, and 
thus indirectly, but surely, exterminate itself. The interests of both parties 
will therefore be best served by an adjustment of their respective rates of mul- 
tiplication, such that the species devoured shall furnish an excess of numbers 
to supply the wants of the devourer, and that the latter shall confine its ap- 
propriations to the excess thus furnished. 

We thus see that there is really a close community of interest between these 
two seemingly deadly foes. 

And next we note that this common interest is promoted by the process of 
natural selection; for it is the great office of this process to eliminate the unfit. 
If two species standing to each other in the relation of hunter and prey are 
or become badly adjusted in respect to their rates of increase, so that the one 
preyed upon is kept very far below the normal number which might find food, 
even if they do not presently obliterate each other, the pair are placed at a 
disadvantage in the battle for life, and must suffer accordingly. Just as cer- 
tainly as the thrifty business man who lives within his income will finally 
dispossess his shiftless competitor who can never pay his debts, the well- 


The Lake as a Microcosm. 87 


adjusted aquatic animal will, in time crowd out his poorly-adjusted competi- 
tors for food and for the various goods of life. Consequently we may believe 
that in the long run and as a general rule, those species which have survived, 
are those which have reached a fairly close adjustment in this particular. 

Two ideas are thus seen to be sufficient to explain the order evolved from 
this seeming chaos; the first that of a general community of interests among ° 
‘all classes of organic beings, and the second that of the beneficent power of 
natural selection which compels such adjustments of the rates of destruction 
and of multiplication of the various species as shall best promote this common 
interest. 

Have these facts and ideas derived from a study of our aquatic microcosm 
any general application on a higher plane. We have here an example of the 
triumphant beneficence of the laws of life applied to conditions seemingly the 
most unfavorable possible for any mutually helpful adjustment. In this lake, 
where competitions are fierce and continuous beyond any parallel in the worst 
periods of human history; where they take hold not on the goods of life, 
merely, but always upon life itself; where mercy and charity and sympathy 
and magnanimity and all the virtues are utterly unknown; where robbery and 
murder and the deadly tyranny of strength over weakness are the unvarying 
rule; where what we call wrong-doing is always triumphant, and what we call 
goodness would be immediately fatal to its possessor,—even here, out of these 
hard conditions, an order has been evolved which is the best conceivable with- 
out a total change in the conditions themselves; an equilibrium has been 
reached and is steadily maintained that actually accomplishes for all the par- 
ties involved the greatest good which the circumstances will at all permit. In 
a system where life is the universal good, but the destruction of life the well 
nigh universal occupation, an order has spontaneously risen which constantly 
tends to maintain life at the highest limit,— a limit far higher, in fact, with 
respect to both quality and quantity, than would be possible in the absence of 
this destructive conflict. Is there not, in this reflection, solid ground for a 
belief in the final beneficence of the laws of organic nature? If the system 
of life is such that a harmonious balance of conflicting interests has been 
reached where every element is either hostile or indifferent to every other, 
may we not trust much to the outcome where, as in human affairs, the spon- 
taneous adjustments of nature are aided by intelligent effort, by sympathy, and 
by self-sacrifice? 


IMMIGRATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 





ReaD BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, SEPTEMBER, 1886, 


BY FRED BRENDEL, M.D. 





There is no stability in nature, all thingschange. Individuals change during 
life, species change in time, associations of species change by suppression and 
supplantation, climate changes, and with it the appearance of landscape. Such 
changes are not obvious when we compare only short periods, as single years, 
for they take place slowly step by step; they are conspicuous only when we 
compare longer periods, either from what we know by personal experience or 
what we learn from history. We read in the works of old Greek authors de- 
scriptions of their country, of shady groves full of lively springs, when now 
Greece is an arid country; the woods are gone and the abundance of springs. 
Many plants are mentioned that now-a-days are not found there, and conspicu- 
ous plants are not mentioned that grow there at present, and would not have 
escaped notice had they been there contemporary with those writers. At the 
same time Germany was covered by an uninterrupted forest, and it is quite im- 
probable that the many weeds now found in fields and sunny places, around 
houses and in gardens, have grown there at that time; they must have immi- 
grated after cultivation of the country. 

As already said, changes in the aspect of a country are effected by sup-. 
pression and supplantation, with other words, extinction of constituent parts of 
the whole and substitution of others by immigration, the latter ones being the 
more powerful.in the struggle for existence. 

Before this country was settled by our race, the red man hunted the buffalo 
on the prairie and the bear in the forests. The red man is gone, the but- 
falo is gone, and the black bear; the elk is gone and the beaver; civilization 
pushed them westward with the red man since more than half a century. 
Changes in the animal habitation did not stop since. Forty years ago the bot- 
tom woods swarmed with paroquets, now not a single one is found in Illinois. 
Many birds once abundant are scarce now, when on every tree of this city 
scores of noisy house-sparrows fill the air with their chirping, unknown there 
15 years ago, This impudent intruder chased the blue birds away and somany 
lovely birds. Until now he is only the unwelcome inhabitant of the city, but 
as he is prolific in a high degree, soon there will not be room enough in town, 
and he will spread over the whole country, as the rats did and the mice. 

When a foreign animal or plant becomes perfectly at home in a country we 
call it naturalized, when naturalization is not perfect the new comer is called 
adventive; then it is uncertain whether the settlement will be permanent or 
not. Sometimes, by chance, single individuals appear, but do not settle at all. 
I recollect such stragglers that were captured in our vicinity, —one bird from 
the northwest, the evening grosbeak (Hesperiphona vespertina), and one but- | 
terfly from the southwest (Terias Mexicana). I have never seen a second one. 

Some insects appear in single years in immense numbers, doing much dam- 
age in certain districts. This is not by migration, for the same kind exist in 
the same locality before and after, only in a smaller number. A beetle of the 


Immigration of Animals and Plants. 89 


Longhorn tribe (Clytus pictus) destroyed, about 25 years ago, all the locust 
trees in town; after business was done he was seldom seen. The late State 
Entomologist, Mr. Walsh, of Rock Island, said in the Practical Entomologist, 
Vol. I, No. 4: About a hundred years ago this insect was well known to Forster 
to inhabit the locust in the State of New York. Twenty years ago, although 
the best Illinois botanists agree that the locust grows wild in the southern part 
of Illinois, it was still unknown in that State. Shortly afterwards it commenced 
attacking the locusts in the neighborhood of Chicago, and thence spread grad- 
ually in a south, southwest and west direction through the State, sweeping the 
locusts before it wherever it came. In 1860 it had pretty well destroyed all 
these trees in Central Illinois. This locust-borer Walsh claimed to be distinct 
from the Clytus pictus, and he names it Clytus Robiniz. The legs and horns 
of the latter be stouter in the male and the body tapering behind, but the fe- 
males be undistinguishable in both the species. The larva of the one inhabits 
the locust, the other the hickory. If Waish is right, then, indeed, there is a 
true migration; but our entomologists do not agree with Walsh, and take the 
two borers for identic; then we have only an example of a periodical increase 
in number. Many insects feed on different plants, and a change of appetite is 
not unimaginable. The potato beetle, for instance, after tasting the potato 
plant preferred that to his original food plant, the Solanum rostratum. 

The potato beetle (Doryphora decem-lineata of Say) is quite similar to Dory- 
phora juncta of Germar.' Both. species some entomologists took for identie, 
and as the latter was known in Illinois before the ravages of the other, the mi- 
gratory character of the species was doubted. The differences are so little 
that they can be perceived only by a very close inspection. In D. juncta the 
edges of the black stripes are punctured in a single straight line, and the sec- 
ond and third stripes, counted from the outside, are united behind; when in 
D. decem-lineata the punctures are irregular, and the third and fourth stripes 
are united. Of what value the latter difference is show the exceptions; 
in single individuals the second, third and fourth stripes are united, and in 
others only on one wing-case the junction takes place. Say, himself, suspected 
that the two are only one variable species, but now the entomologists agree on 
the diversity of both. So we have to be contented with the asserted fact, that 
before the year 1864 only the Doryphora juncta, and not D. decemlineata, was 
known in Illinois, and that the latter, since 1861, traveled from Colorado and 
Nebraska eastward. But this example illustrates how species are made, by 
nature or by scientists. There is a variable species, different climate and dii- 
ferent nourishment facilitate differences to become hereditary, and hair-split- 
ting naturalists take the advantage of the slightest diversity to store our books 
with new names. 

The Clytus, as well as the Doryphora, are American species; they migrate, 
but did not immigrate. 

There is a number of injurious insects, of foreign origin, that immigrated in 
North America. There is no doubt that two species of cockroaches, Blatta 
orientalis and Germanica, the bed-bugs, the carpet beetle, and four little 
beetles that infest botanical and zodlogical collections — Dermestes lardarius, 
Anthrenus muszeorum, Ptinus fur and Anobium paniceum — came from the 
eastern continent. These four beetles were probably introduced with stuffed 
animals, with collections of insects and dried plants, the carpet beetle (Atta- 
genus pellio) with woolen fabric. The bed-bug (Acanthia lectularia), which 
immigrated at an unknown time, may be of East Indian origin, but already 
the Greek and Roman authors mention it. In the 11th century it appeared in 
Germany; in the beginning of the 16th century it was known in England, and 
probably the first settlers brought it to this continent. There are two immi- 
grated cockroaches — Periplaneta orientalis, originally from Western Asia, and 
the smaller Blatta germanica, from Europe. The latter is not so frequent as 
the former, and does infest mostly the bakeries. There is a third one (Peri- 
planeta Americana) that spread from South America, and was imported by 
ships into the seaports of Europe. 


90 Immigration of Animals and Plants. 


A white butterfly (Pieris Rapz), the caterpillar of which is feeding on the 
cabbage, doing considerable damage, immigrated from Europe thirty years 
ago. Traveling westward he reached Illinois in about 1877, and spread the 
following years over the whole State. 

Now there is left one insect that was generally believed to be of foreign 
origin, the so-called Hessian fly (Cecidomyia destructor). But Prof. Hagen, 
of Cambridge, Mass., in a paper published in the Third Report of? U. 8. Ento- 
mological Commission, 1883, demonstrated that it is impossible that the fly 
could have been imported by the Hessian troops; that it is very probable that 
the fly was here before the war, and that the fly was not known to exist in 
Germany before 1857. . . 

Much greater is the immigration of foreign plants and is increasing every 
year. When I came to Peoria, in 1852, the following foreigners were perfectly 
naturalized and common around town: The Hedge Mustard (Sisymbrium of- 
ficinale), Black Mustard (Brassica nigra), Shepherd’s Purse (Capsella bursa 
pastoris) ,St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum), Purslane (Portulaca ole- 
racca), Common Mallow (Malva rotundifolia), the Spiny Sida (Sida Spinosa), — 
Velvet Leaf (Abutilon Avicenne), Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), Common 
Mayweed (Maruta cotula), Burdock (Lappa officinalis), Common Mullein ( Ver- 
bascum Tapsus), Horehound (Marrubium vulgare), Goosefoot (Chenopodium 
urbicum), the Jerusalem Oak (Chenopodium Botrys), the Mexican Tea (Cheno- 
podium ambrosioides), Lady’s Thumb (Polygonum persicaria), Black Bind- 
weed (Polygonum convolvulus), Curled Dock (Rumex crispus), Hemp (Canna- 
bis sativa); and of grasses, Timothy (Phleum pratense), two species of Era- 
grostis (E. poaeoides var megastachya and E. pilosa), Chess ( Bromus seca- 
linus), Finger Grass (Panicum sanguinale), and the Foxtail (Setaria glauca). 

Of the following species I have seen at that time only single specimens, they 
are now very common and fully naturalized: The Sow Thistle (Sonchus asper), 
Toad-Flax (Linaria vulgaris), the Common Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), 
Hounds’ Tongue (Cynoglossum officinale), Stickseed (Echinospermum Lap- 
pula), Sheep Sorrel (Rumex acetosella), Catnip (Nepeta Cataria. 

Before 1860 were first observed Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis), Parsnip 
(Pastinaca sativa), Ground Ivy (Nepeta Glechoma), Corn Speedwell ( Veronica 
arvensis), the Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata), now all common. Then a 
number not common, but occasionally found yet: The Rabbit-foot Clover (Tri- 
folium arvense), the High Mallow (Malva sylvestris), the Cow Herb (Sapon- 
aria vaccaria), the False Flax (Camelina sativa), the Moth Mullein ( Verbascum 
Blattaria), the Thorny Amarant (Amarantus spinosus), Panicum glabrum. 

At that same early time were collected in single specimens, but not seen 
since: Rhaphanus Raphanistrum, Inula Helenium, Nicandra Physaloides and 
Rumex obtusifolius. The Ox-eye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgaris) I collected 
in a single specimen, 1852, at the fence of the Ballance field, and did not see it 
again until last year, 1885, when it reappeared along the railroad track beyond 
the bridge. 

After 1860, but before 1880, arrived, and became since quite common, the 
Water Cress (Narsturtium officinale), the White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba), 
the Common Chickweed (Stellaria media), the Oak-leaved Goosefoot ( Blitum 
glaucum), and Amarantus blitoides. This plant I took at first for a prostrate 
variety of Amarantus albus, and so did Prof. Watson, in Botany of King’s Re- 
port, published in 1871, but afterwards made it a new species, first published, 
1877, in Proc. Am, Acad., xii, 273, with the note: “ Frequent in the valleys 
and plains of the interior, from Mexico to North Nevada and Iowa, and becom- 
ing introduced in some of the northern states eastward.” There we have an 
eastward migration of an American species. I suspect that another of our com- 
mon plants, the fetid Marygold (Dysodia chrysanthemoides), perhaps at a re- 
mote time, came from the southwest. All the other species of the genus and 
all the genera of the whole tribe Tagetinz are Mexican, partly extending to 
the states and territories west of the Mississippi. 

Less common, but noticed since about twenty years, are the Cow Herb (Sa- 


Immigration of Animals and Plants. 91 


ponaria Vaccaria), the Corn Cockle (Lychnis Githago), the Canada Thistle (Cir- 
sium arvense), bristly fox-tail grass (Setaria verticillata), and the Orab 
Grass (Eleusine indica), a native of India, now spread all over the tropic and 
the warmer temperate zone. 

Since 1880 a number of adventive plants were observed, which may partly 
naturalize, partly again disappear: The Field Pennygrass (Thlaspi arvense), 
the small flowered Cransbill (Geranium pusillum), the Yellow Sweet Clover 
(Melilotus officinalis), the Alfalfa or Lucerne (Medicago sativa), the common 
Carrot (Daucus carota), the Thoroughwax (Bupleurum rotundifolium), the 
Ripple Grass (Plantago lanceolata), the Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum), the 
Corn Gromwell (Lithospermum arvense), the Thorn Apple (Datura Stramoni- 
um L), the poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum), the Prickly Lettuce (Lac- 
tuca scariola), the two last are observed only this year, 1886. 

The white-flowered Thorn Apple, now common in the east, came no doubt 
from the old continent; but whether the purple-flowered, our troublesome 
Jamestown weed, is indigenous or came from South America, that is, so I 
think, an undecided question; certainly the immigration must be very remote. 
I learned from farmers that the plant springs up in newly-broken land, far 
from any other settlement. The seeds are heavy and not easy disseminated 
very far, but they are known to keep their germinating power a long time, 
and it is very probable that they, a long time ago, were buried in the ground 
before they had a chance to germinate, 

There are some other plants, the immigration of which is doubtful: Ceras- 
tium, triviale of Link, which is the Cerastium viscosum L. in Gray’s Manual 
and in Linnzus’ Herbarium, but C. vulgatum in his Species Plantarum. 
[Linnzeus, by a regretful mistake, interchanged the names of the two plants, 
and I think it is only right to discard ambiguous or inadequate names with- 
out regard of priority. The Cerastium Vulgatum L. herb in Gray’s Manual 
should be changed into Cerastium Glomeratum of Thuillier.] When I first 
found this plant, it was on a place where not likely imported plants grew at that 
time. Nota few plants common to Europe and North America are considered 
to have immigrated by a double way to the United States, either directly from 
Europe or from the north in remote times. The plant is indicated by Hooker 
in Iceland; by Martens, in Spitzbergen, Greenland, Iceland and Labrador; by 
Meyer, in Labrador; by Ledebour, in Siberia and Kamtschatka; by Watson 
(King’s Report), in the Uintah Mountains, in an altitude of 10,000 feet; by 
Parry, in the Rocky Mountains, and by Lapham, in Wisconsin. That shows 
that we can have the plant just as well from the north as from the east, where 
it probably came directly from Europe By the same double way we got, 
probably, five of our grasses, all acknowledged by Gray as indigenous: The Red 
Top (Agrostis vulgaris), the White Bent Grass (Agrostis alba), the Low Spear 
Grass (Poa annua), the Wire Grass (Poa compressa), and the Kentucky Blue 
Grass (Poa pratensis). The Barn-yard Grass (Panicum crista Galli) is a cos- 
mopolite, and occurs even in the deserts of Utah and Nevada. 

The Pigweed (Chenopodium album) and the Maple-leaved Goosefoot (Cheno- 
podium hybridum) are believed to be introduced species, but Watson (King’s 
Report) does concede them both to be indigenous. The first one is found from 
the Great Bear Lake to Nevada, and the other from Saskatchawan to the Wah- 
satch Mountains, both together in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, in 10,000 
feet altitude. So the eastern states may have them just as well from the west 
as from Europe, or both ways. The same is good for two species of Amarantus, 
A. albus and A. retroflexus, which Watson declared as indigenous in the deserts 
beyond the Rocky Mountains. 

Lastly ought to be mentioned a number of plants that escape sometimes 
from gardens and other cultivated places, and of which some may be natural- 
ized in the course of time, such are: Silene Armeria, Hibiscus Trionum, Rosa 
rubiginosa, Centaurea Cyanus, Tanacetum vulgare, Lysimachia nummularia, 
Mentha viridis, Satureja hortensis, Ipomoea purpurea, Ipomoea nil, Lycium 
vulgare, Polygonum orientale, Fagopyrum esculentum, Euphorbia cyparissias, 


92 Immigration of Animals and Plants. 


eee marginatum, Asparagus officinalis, Hemerocallis fulva, and Setaria 
italica. 

Now all the really naturalized plants form, indisputably, part of our flora, 
just as well as the immigrated white people, as soon as they acquire their paper 
of naturalization, form a part of the nation. The difference is onlyintime. All 
the white people have immigrated within three centuries, and all our Illinois 
plants have immigrated after the drift period to this day. All things change, 
but the change of our immigrated plants is not so retrograde as Lyell means, 
when, in his second visit to the United States, speaking of introduced plants, 
he remarks: “It is a curious fact, which I afterwards learned from Dr. Dale 
Owen, that when such foreigners are first naturalized they overrun the country 
with amazing rapidity and are quite a nuisance; but they soon grow scarce, 
and after eight or ten years can hardly be met with. 

We wish only that might be so in regard to the rats and mice, the cock- 
roaches and bed-bugs. - 

THE LIBRARY GF THE 


FEB 18 1937 


UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


